The Quest to Reunite With You
by ThatOneWriterFromShef
Summary: Sequel to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The Return! Now that Bolt has regained his lost memories, along with Team Soul, he embarks on a journey to reunite with some lost friends, and finally get something off of his tiny yellow chest. Though it seems fate has things in store for them before that happens. Will contain strong language, laughs, fluff and a crossover with anime/games.
1. Chapter 1

**The Quest to Reunite With You**

**Chapter 1: The Journey Begins!**

**The follow up/sequel to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The Return!**

**There will be laughs, fights, and more in this journey! **

**And remember...Pokemon doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Game Freak!**

**Oh, and if there ever was an anime theme for this fic, I'd pick Masayume Chasing by Boa.**

**STORY AND CHAPTER BEGIN!**

(In some unknown location...)

In a dark place that sort of looks like a chamber, the Pikachu with the scar walks in, a scowl on his face. "Hmph. A waste of my time. That was humiliating to say the least. Oh well. I hope those criminals will be useful to us."

"Yet you got arrested. Spending too much time there was slightly hazardous." Says a figure with piercing red eyes that lurks in the darkness. "You spent too much time bragging to those two that it almost cost you dearly. You let yourself get hit pretty much. You brought it on yourself."

"Pfft. Don't lecture me. Typical bad guy, you do the same thing. And look at how "you" got defeated by those two. I guess we're two of a kind."

Right at that moment, the Pikachu keels over, holding his head and groaning in pain.

"You compare yourself to me? You don't know what I'm actually capable of. Just be grateful I'm helping you. Be grateful I'm sparing you."

"You...you aren't helping me! Whatever you've done to me is making me attack...it's making me do things I normally wouldn't have done before. Know that I'm only helping you because you're helping me get things back to the way they were before-AAAH!"

"Try as you want, you rodent. Things won't completely go back to normal for you. Your partner was killed 9 years ago, and I need not remind you what happened to your so called "brother" and his partner. Now are you going to continue to defy me? Or do you want me to continue helping you get this world back to normal? You'd better choose your words wisely, or I'll end you here and now!"

"Nnnggh..." His fist crackles in an odd black electricity. "I...I...I apologise. Now stop this freakin' pain in my head you psycho!"

A few seconds later, the Pikachu drops to the floor, catching his breath, and shaking his head. "O-ow..."

"Better make sure it stays that way. You wouldn't like it if I resorted to doing things myself.."

(The next morning, outside Beach Cave)

Flarea wakes up with a satisfying yawn. She cracks her neck to see that the sun is rising up into the sky. She smiles warmly at the sight. (**A.N. No pun intended...because...y'know, fire type?**)

"_The sunrise...I haven't really seen it lately because I'm always sleeping in our room. It's been ages since the last guild expedition. Glad the master's let us do this now. I mean, not that I won't be happy seeing that little electric type's little mug again...it's just I've been craving this type of adventure for so long. All work and no play make this fire type a very cranky fox."_

Just then, she feels something fidgeting close to her. She turns her head to see Gracie curled up close to her, a small smile on her face, as her chest rises and falls gently, signifying she's sound asleep.

"_Awwww...like the little sister I never had."_

She then looks around to notice something. Something that frightens her. Something that makes her fur stand on edge.

"Wattson isn't here." She sharply turns her head towards Beach Cave. "Oh, crap." She gets to her feet instantly, which ends up waking Gracie up with a start, and runs over to the entrance of Beach Cave. "WATTSON!" She bellows into Beach Cave, which echoes off the walls. "WHEN YOU GET BACK OUT HERE, I SWEAR I'M GOING TO BURN YOU!"

She gets no reply, which makes her even madder.

"DO YOU HEAR ME, THUNDER-NUT?!"

"Yeah, I hear you, loud and clear. And for the record, I'm not in Beach Cave you crazy hot headed fire type."

Flarea freezes where she is, and slowly looks back. She sees Wattson walking onto the beach, with the treasure bag hooked over his shoulder. "Wha...What..."

"I went to go grab some last minute supplies for the journey. Is there a problem or somethin'? Thought I'd gone in there again?"

She takes a few steps back, looking back and forth between the Heliolisk and the cave in front of her, and a few seconds later, a horde of water type Pokemon, backed by an angry Golduck and Samurott roll up to the entrance.

"Ah..." She quietly squeaks out, as the water types all launch their most powerful water attacks at her. "Welp...!"

Help is at the ready, as Wattson jumps in front of her, and launches a Parabolic Charge attack, countering the water attacks. This puts the frights into the water types, as they instantly back off.

"Get lost water scrubs! If you don't wanna be fried today, you'll leave my friend alone!"

"S-she disturbed our peace!" The Golduck defends.

"You're the ones that kick up a fuss when some Pokemon just wanna explore!"

"You're the one that always picks a fight with us!"

"You have the choice to decline."

The water types go quiet after this reasoning, and with a collective grumble, they retreat back into the cave. "Lousy Diamond Rank exploration teams, thinking they can boss us about..."

After they've retreated, there's a pregnant pause right up until Wattson swivels around, a neutral look on his face.

"Well! Times'a wastin'! We got a lost team mate to find!" He saunters past an ironically yet metaphorically frozen Flarea. "Oh wait, make that two..."

"_D-did that seriously just happen?! __Wattson's the most...backwards Pokemon I've ever worked with...calls me crazy...while being crazy himself...and then saves me and acts like it was nothing...?!"_

"I say we get some breakfast before we head out. I don't wanna do this on an empty stomach." Wattson states.

Flarea is about to argue back, but she's interrupted by the loud rumbling of her stomach. She lowers her head and sighs, making Gracie giggle.

"Looks like your stomach isn't on your side today. Come on, Flare. May as well eat before heading out. And grab a drink at Spinda's Cafe while we're at it." She gets up and stretches, yawning slightly. "That was the best nap I've had in a long while..." She licks her paw, and wipes it along her head to get the fur there straightened out.

"What're you doing?" Wattson asks, before a sly smirk makes its way onto her face. "Trying to look your best for-"

He can't finish his sentence, as an Ice Beam hits his mouth, freezing it. Gracie walks past him, with an unamused look on her face mixed with a blush.

"Shut it, Wattson."

Wattson sweatdrops and walks on while the sun starts to thaw the ice from his face. _"That was cold..."_

"She got you good, Wattson." Flarea comments walking alongside him. "Oh, by the way, your lips'll probably be a bit red, once they've thawed. You'll end up looking like a female Wobbuffet." She giggles.

"_Aw, crap..."_

A little later, after Wattson's mouth has thawed from its icy prison, they walk out of Spinda's Cafe, each clutching a drink of their choice. "Ever wonder if Spinda likes anybody?" Wattson asks.

"Yeah, it's been on my mind a few times. Though I've always wondered what sex Spinda is." Gracie comments. "Myself, I've always thought Spinda's a boy. Never came off as a female to me."

"Wanna know somthin'?" Flarea asks them both, grabbing their attention. "Spinda's actually a girl."

"No way..!" Gracie says in slight shock.

"Way!" Flarea remarks with a laugh.

"_Damn, so that's why I've been feeling all weird around her?"_ Wattson thinks.

"So are we heading out now?" Flarea asks.

"Nah, the guild wanna give us a send off. Hopefully it won't take too long though." Gracie says, her tail wagging.

"You're really impatient to get going, aren't you?" Flarea asks matter-of-factly. "Look, stay calm, alright? Bolt might be out there, but nothing's gonna happen if you go like an hour or two later than you planned."

"...Fine."

"Besides, the guild are our friends as well, don't you want to spend a little bit of time with them before you go?"

"I know, I know...Two hours though. And then we leave." Gracie tells her in defeat. "We should head there now. It's in front of the statue. The whole town is sending us off."

"The whole town?!" Wattson asks in shock. "Why would the whole town send us away?!"

"You seem to forget who exactly we're searching for, Wattson. Which is actually surprising if so." Flarea sternly states.

"I-I didn't mean it like that!" Wattson waves his hands in defence. "I just didn't expect it is all!"

"Good." Flarea bluntly puts and looks where she's walking, making Wattson sigh in relief.

(Meanwhile, at Pokemon Square)

The group are at the lake where Whiscash is, relaxing.

"Um, Whiscash?" Kami asks the elder water Pokemon.

"Yes? What is it, little Pichu?"

"What exactly happens in the Luminous Cave?"

"Well...originally, evolving was something that could only be done by entering special places."

"Special places? Like the cave?" She asks, tilting her head.

"Of course. That and Luminous Spring. For Pokemon to evolve, they had to travel great distances to these places. Bringing along the various items they'd possibly need to do so if necessary. In times of great catastrophe, however, Luminous Cave would seal itself up and Luminous Spring would simply cease to work, depending on exactly where the incident was taking place. For example: when that meteor was heading on a collision course with the planet 13 years ago, it was messing with the systems around the general area, from around here, to places such as Mt. Freeze, Western Cave and Mt. Faraway. Naturally, the forces that made the cave work reacted and sealed it up. Luminous Spring was a much more mysterious place when time was wonky. Sure, Pokemon could reach the place and explore...but it just wouldn't work! The more baffling part is Luminous Cave was still functioning properly!"

"I might know why." Titania says.

"Oh?" Whiscash asks.

"Thing is, the Time Gears kept time rolling, but they were kept in and around places that were near Treasure Town. Any effects of time over there, the spreading isn't very instantaneous. This place was only starting to feel the effects of the time crisis before things went back to normal. I was in Canyon Town at the time. They didn't feel anything at all."

"Very good insight, miss!"

"It helps to be well read." She states with a smile.

"Nerd!"

"Zip it, mutt!"

"As I was saying, there are cases where a Pokemon can naturally invoke the power to evolve! For example times when a friend or loved one is in danger. I heard the hero who defeated Dialga to save time did just that!"

"Atchoo!"

"Gesundheit."

"So...when I evolve, I probably won't need to go to Luminous Cave or Luminous Spring?" Kami asks the elder Whiscash."

"That's precisely right! If you're fighting to protect a close friend or a member of your family, you'll probably be able to pull it off yourself! In fact I managed it myself!" he boasts with a hearty chuckle.

"Whoa. Seriously?" Titania asks in mild shock.

"When my home was being threatened by a group of Carnivine, I had to do something. So I evolved from a small and meager Barboach into what I am now."

"What happened?"

"I lost."

And with that, Kami and Titania fall over, anime style.

"But I was saved by a passing Delphox who valiantly fought them off. Lucky she was passing by. I wanted to thank her, but she gave me a Sitrus Berry and ran off soon after. Funnily enough not long after that, Magnezone's police forces came floating by."

"Ah...I see." Titania states, managing to hold in a laugh without Whiscash noticing.

"And the weirdest part is..." Whiscash leans in. "There's a rumour going around that there are Pokemon that can evolve past their final stage."

"Whoa! That sounds awesome!" Kami exclaims.

"It does sound rather exciting doesn't it, young one?" He turns to the Mawile next to her, who looks kind of solemn. "Are you alright, Miss? You seemed to space out just then."

She snaps out of her trance and sweats a little. "I-I'm fine! I'm fine! Perfectly fine...hehe..."

"So Mr. Whiscash, just wondering. Where was your egg hatched?"

"Ah, funny thing about that actually...I hatched in the hu-"

"Hey, Kami! Titania! We're heading out now!" Inferno shouts in, interrupting the water/ground duel type.

"We decided on a team name change!" Bolt adds, making Titania double take.

"What? Oh. Whiscash. Sorry, but we really need to get going. Thank you for the storytelling and your knowledge."

"It's no problem at all, Titania! You four have a safe journey now!" The elder wishes them with a smile on his face.

"We'll give it a shot. No promises." She chuckles before lowering her horn jaws for Kami to hop on to, smiling. However, when she reunites with the two males, her smile drops. "So what did you end up picking? Something over the top I presume?"

"Actually...no." Inferno states calmly. "We went with Team Soul." Titania stops and looks at the two for a moment, Kami happily munching on an Oran Berry atop her horn jaws.

"Why something as simple as "Soul"?" Her look turns to a confused one. "I thought you were into those kind of "awesome" sounding team names."

"Well, I'm gonna be honest. "Unknown" we agreed on because we thought we weren't gonna get well known. And we never really told anybody our team name. But the ironic thing is, we did get quite a few Pokemon who knew us where they saw us, and we weren't exactly "unknown" after that. And so I thought. You know our Exploration Team badges? Well you know how whenever we get separated from each other during a mission? And how if ever one of us completes the mission while we're separated, we all end up leaving? Well I think our badges are connected to our souls, and through that, while we're on a team, our souls become one. I was originally gonna go for "United Souls" but that'd be too long. So Team Soul is what we chose. That's alright, isn't it?...Ti?"

The Mawile just stands there, slack jawed at the Growlithe's explanation. Bolt snickers and leans over to Inferno. "Mate, I think you broke her." This causes the Growlithe to chuckle.

"She probably thought I was gonna go for something overkill. I'm not that bad, am I?" Inferno asks, looking at Bolt with puppy eyes.

This of course makes Bolt look back off a little, sweatdropping. "Ummm...no, no, of course not...then again, I've only just met you so I can't really know for sure...that a good enough answer?" He asks, rubbing the back of his head, hoping for a good reaction.

"Yeah, I'm good." Inferno states nonchalantly.

"Y'know what? We should just get going. If we leave today we could get to Treasure Town in a few weeks." This makes Bolt's ear twitch.

"I'm sorry...did...did you just say-"

"Treasure Town? Yup!" Inferno confirms with a toothy grin.

"We'll be stopping off at a few points before we get there, doing a few jobs to keep our stock of Poke steady. At worst, I think it'll take us two months." Titania says, a knowing smile on her face.

This brings an unholy silence between the four, as Bolt takes time to process this. That's before he grins and throws both arms into the air, crackling with electricity "Alright!" The pressure of the power and the wattage makes the three other Pokemon flinch. "I can NOT wait to see the look on the faces of the guild when I walk through those doors, alive and well!" This statement causes Titania to roll her eyes, Kami to giggle, and Inferno to cackle, his mouth heating up.

"Aw yeah! Now even I can't wait to meet your friends! The Pokemon I can battle, the friends I could make as well! Stuff like that gets me fired up!" He releases a Flamethrower into the sky, which makes all three other Pokemon widen their eyes.

"Calm down, Inferno!" They shout, which he does, with a sheepish look on his face.

"Heh. Sorry guys."

"'Salright, Inferno. Yeah...I'm gonna get right back to that guild, and everybody's gonna be there! Me, you guys, Gracie, Flarea and Karu! And that is a promise! Now let's get going!"

"Aye!" Inferno shouts as they two males walk off towards the old Rescue Team base, where the road out of town is. "Team Soul is a-go!"

Titania shakes her head and chuckles. "Boys." She then runs after them with Kami tailing her. "Wait up!"

**CHAPTER END**

**Now here we go! First chapter of a new adventure! Sorry it's a bit late. And the title is different to what it was originally going to be.**

**Next chapter will have a few of what Pokemon is famous for! Battles!**

**Ciao!**


	2. Comrades

**Chapter 2: Comrades**

**Alright peeps? **

**Okay, so you're probably wondering: what happened to that Dewott at the end of The Return that the other Pikachu took down? Well you'll get the answer to that in this chapter.**

"Whoa. Whatever happened here, must not have been pretty. From what Gracie told us, Temporal Tower looked healthier than this."

Karu approaches the broken up headquarters of Officer Magnezone's forces slowly. A million causes of this incident play out through his head. But one conclusion can only be drawn. Whoever did this must have been one tough customer.

"I wonder what happened to Officer Magnezone's team? Surely they could have prevented something like this."

He saunters up to the door and knocks on it a few times...only for it to tip over and hit the floor, making even Karu back up a little.

"Okay?" He peeks his head in and looks around, his aura at work. His eyes open. Survivors! "I hope they aren't too hurt...I'll need to get answers. If the perpetrator's still out there, he or she could be dangerous."

His aura still at work, he carefully walks into the HQ, keeping up his guard for anybody that might jump out and attack him.

"I don't like this...it's too quiet with all these survivors in here...though I'm getting a strong reading from one aura in particular with justice and revenge conflicting each other in emotions right now." He comes to a desk, which presumably belongs to the officer. However, what catches the Lucario's eye is the Big Apple perched in the centre of it.

"A Big Apple? Perched right in the centre of the desk? That seems suspicious to me...either that or how Magnezone's apples are places on the desk make him kind of OCD..." His stomach rumbles, interrupting him from his thoughts. "However...I haven't eaten since last night. So I'm sure he wouldn't mind...the Magnemite line don't even eat anyway. Nor do the Voltorb line for that matter. Bon appetite." Taking his aura guard down, he reaches for the Big Apple, mouth watering slightly.

Big mistake.

As soon as his paw touches the Apple, the ground beneath him gives out and out comes a Dewott surrounded by water, hitting Karu, and taking him into the air like a rocket. While in the air, the Dewott stops the attack, flips above Karu, and slamming both of his glowing hands together, summons forth a high pressured stream of water. Hydro Pump. It hits Karu head on, sending him crashing into the ground, making him skid along and crash through the wall.

Karu stands up, a little in awe of this Dewott's power. _"Whoa...this guy just came out of nowhere...right as I lowered my aura senses. Those water attacks were powerful as well. But far be it from me to turn down a challenge. Especially one of this calibur." _As the Dewott lands, however, Karu senses a powerful resonance from within. _"Of course. His special ability. Torrent. Each of the three elemental abilities, Blaze, Overgrow and Torrent,__ cause the bearer to__ go into a berserker state once it's activated. And the power of their respective elemental attacks skyrockets. Did he cause this damage? Or did whatever wreck this place do this to him? Whatever the case, I need to defeat him before he causes more damage."_

Raising his aura senses, he dodges a swipe from one of the Dewott's scalchops and jumps back a few feet, and putting his paws together, he forms an aura sphere, which he then launches at the Dewott.

The water type simply slashes the Aura Sphere in two, grinning. But it's Karu's turn to grin as both parts hit him in the stomach, exploding on contact and sending him flying back. After skidding to a halt, the water type struggles to get up, his resolve not yet giving up.

"Don't push yourself!" Karu yells at him. "If you do that, you could get yourself badly injured!"

"H-heh...it's a little too late for that now, don't ya think..? That punkass Pikachu gave me these wounds...and I'm not about to sit or lie down as he continues to get away with stuff like this. Magnezone's forces are down and out for the count...and I wanna get back at the little electric rat for puttin' us like this..."

"Watch your tongue, whoever you are. My best friend is a Pikachu."

"I DON'T CARE!" He shouts as he gets to his feet suddenly, detaching his other scalchop and imbuing it with the power of Razor Shell. He glares at Karu with a death glare, who simply stands there surprised at the outburst. "I WILL find that little jive yellow bastard! And with these scalchops in my hands, I'll go through YOU!" As he shouts this, a Thunder Wave comes from nowhere and hits the Dewott, paralysing him.

"THAT...IS QUITE ENOUGH, JET."

"Huh?" Karu exclaims, looking in the direction of which the Thunder Wave came from.

He sees Officer Magnezone float out of his office, shaking. He also sees that cause of the damage of the building, and the Dewott's (who's name seems to be Jet) injuries, might have done a number on the officer as well. Jet looks at the officer, an apologetic look on his face.

"S..Sorry..."

With that, Jet passes out, finally succumbing to his injuries.

"FIND SOME ORAN OR SITRUS BERRIES. HIS INJURIES ARE QUITE SEVERE." Magnezone tells Karu. But the latter has other plans.

He rolls Jet onto his back and then holds his paws over him, glowing a faint pink. "Heal Pulse..."

Just as the name suggests, a pulse expels from his paws and covers Jet's body.

"IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE LAST MET...KARU OF TEAM BLAZING AURA." Magnezone claims.

This throws Karu off, but only for a brief moment. "I'm not part of that team any more. 5 years."

"YES, I'M WELL AWARE OF WHAT HAPPENED. THE GUILDMASTER TOLD ME OF THE DETAILS."

"Then he also probably told you I **don't **like to be reminded. Now can we not talk about about this?"

"...FINE. BUT YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM YOUR PAST FOREVER. ONE OF THESE DAYS YOU'LL HAVE TO FACE YOUR FRIENDS."

"...I plan to, Magnezone. I plan to real soon. Especially now that **he's** come back."

"'**HE**'"? Magnezone asks. "WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOU-...WAIT...YOU DON'T MEAN-" His sentence is cut short as Karu simply nods.

"I saw him around Pokemon Square. And it's as if he never left. His battle style is exactly the same. His aura too. The only thing that isn't is his accent. And his voice. No longer that high little voice I got used to. Heh."

"...ARE YOU AND HIM GOING TO FIGHT WHEN YOU MEET UP AGAIN?"

This question takes Karu off guard. He sits there for a few moments, his Heal Pulse still working away. "I..." But then he grins and nods. "Yeah. I need to cut loose once in a while. These past 5 years I've been so intent on searching for him and now...all that weight has lifted off of my shoulders."

"...ALL OF IT?"

"Yeah, okay there's the problem of Flarea I have to deal with..."

"SHE'S A PROBLEM NOW IS SHE?"

"N-not like that!" Karu says defensively, paws up. "It's just...how I left. I pissed off Loudred, nearly punched the living daylights out of Chatot and...worst of all...I made Flarea cry...I left her behind. And it was just after we finally-"

"Ooohhh...my head...what hit me?" Jet moans, finally coming to and shaking his head. "First I get beaten down by that little Pikachu then...ohhh..." He looks up at Karu and grins sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. Honestly." Karu says, chuckling lightly. "How're your wounds?"

"Better...which isn't saying much, since I was in complete agony before I passed out." He says dryly.

Karu rolls his eyes, and holds out his paw for Jet to take, helping him up. "Heal Pulse quickly fixed that. So...this Pikachu. What did he look like?" He asked, grabbing the apple from the desk and taking a bite out of it.

"Well...from a distance, he's your pretty standard Pikachu. Short, yellow, red cheeks and whatnot. But that's where similarities end. His eyes. They're...kinda red."

"Kinda red?"

"THAT IS ODD."

"Not only that, but on his right eye, there's a scar. One that looks like a lightning bolt. Not only that, but his lightning is a lot darker than your everyday electric type."

"That must have been that malicious aura I felt earlier. But for some reason, I lost it. Lost track of that aura. It was around here before I lost it."

"Did you feel it run away? Or just disappear? As if he was a Pokemon who could use Teleport?"

"MAYBE HE COULD USE IT? I HAVE HEARD OF A FLYING PIKACHU AND A SURFING PIKACHU SO A TELEPORTING PIKACHU ISN'T OUT OF THE QUESTION COMPLETELY."

"Whoa..."

"No. That didn't feel like a Teleport. It felt...otherworldly in a way."

"Well that's odd...wait!"

Both Karu and Officer Magnezone look at him.

"I did catch him using something to teleport away before passing out. It looked like a Warp Orb! Only...it looked...different. Really different. Something ancient, even."

"WHILE WE HAD IT IN OUR POSESSION, WE LOOKED THROUGH THE BOOKS TO SEE WHAT IT WAS AND WE HAD NO CLUE. THE BOOKS HAD NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ON IT."

"It felt otherworldly, like I said...Agh, I can't lay about while something could be happening. I need to find this Pokemon before anybody else gets hurt."

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU COULD BRING THIS PIKACHU DOWN IF THE ENTIRE POLICE FORCE COULDN'T?"

"...Because as far as I'm concerned, what he's doing is disgracing Bolt's species as a Pikachu. And I'm not about to let that go."

"...OKAY. I WISH YOU LUCK, KARU."

He nods and is about to walk out, when-

"Wait!"

He stops and turns to Jet, who's walking towards him. "I have a score to settle with that Pikachu too. Let me come with you."

"...You want to come with me to find that Pikachu? Think of your type disadvantage."

"I know all about it. But I still want to give him a lesson in pain just like you do." He smiles. "Besides. You get a free travelling buddy."

It takes Karu a moment to ponder this, but he soon turns around fully, holding out his paw, to which Jet responds by shaking it.

"Let's bring down this evildoer together." Karu says in pure confidence.

"Right!" Jet replies.

"GOOD LUCK, YOU TWO."

They nod and walk out of the door, on a search.

"...YOU'LL NEED IT."

(Meanwhile, in the centre of Treasure Town...)

"GOOD LUCK, TEAM ICEBURN!"

"W-whoa...!" Gracie exclaims as she and the other two arrive.

"I've heard of a sendoff, but this takes the cake..!" Flarea whispers in awe.

"All this for sending off a search party?" Wattson asks, confused.

"Like I said earlier, it's about who we're searching for." Flarea states, glaring at him.

"Flarea, forget it...let's just enjoy this and go.." Gracie says, her eyes watering a little bit.

"Awww. Is seeing this a little touching?" Flarea asks, looking down at her with a warm smile. **(A/N No puns were intended in the making of this chapter)**

"K-kinda..."

"Hey, hey, hey, STOP with the tears, will ya, Gracie? We set this up to make ya SMILE, not CRY!" Loudred bursts out from the crowd.

Flarea sweatdrops and sighs before firing off a Flamethrower that shoots right over Loudred's head. The only one to really be shocked is Loudred, who stands there, wide eyed, and quivering.

"Next time you blurt something like that out, not only will it not miss, I won't be holding back neither. Watch your tongue, big mouth."

Loudred rapidly nods at the threat and sits where he is, curling himself into a ball. Wattson points and laughs at Loudred for it, before Flarea looks at him with that same glint in her eye.

"Want some as well?"

He holds up his hands in defence and shakes his head rapidly.

"Good."

Pretty soon, the party's in full swing. Gracie is happily chatting with Sunflora and Chimecho, Flarea is chowing down on Tamato Berries, and Wattson...he's just lost an arm wrestle with Loudred. Poor guy. Wigglytuff and Chatot are stood at the side, watching everybody enjoy themselves. And even the elder Torkoal is in the crowd of Pokemon, enjoying the festivities.

"You can never be to old to enjoy yourself at a party, Chatot." Wigglytuff states.

"Then what are we doing here and not with them?" Chatot asks, tilting his head.

"I want to save my party spirit for when Bolt and Karu DO return to the guild. Home."

"Hmmm...I guess your right. After all, the party for when they do come back is gonna be a big one, I know that much."

"Exactly." Just then, a Pelipper lands next to Chatot, and whispers something to him.

"Uhm..Wigglytuff, I'll be right back, I need to talk with this guy for a few moments..." Chatot and the Pelipper fly off for a moment.

It's at that point, where Wigglytuff senses something instantly wrong with this. He's known Chatot for all these years...But he can talk with Chatot later, once everything's died down. He still needs to watch over the party to make sure nobody spoils it.

"Chatot. You can tell me when you're ready what's wrong. Just don't leave it too long." He sighs and watches on. Everybody's enjoying themselves greatly with bright smiles on their faces. "...Alright, just a little fun." He runs into the crowd of Pokemon. "Don't party anymore without me, friendly friends!"

"Guildmaster?!"

"Please be careful!"

"Someone could get hurt!...Too late!"

"My leg!"

Flarea just sits to the side, chowing down on her Tamato Berries, watching on at the antics. "This guild.." She shakes her head, sighing. "I'm sure gonna miss them when we head out. This better be a good lead, guildmaster. I don't want Gracie coming to a dead end and giving up hope completely."

Much more later, the party dies down, and a few Pokemon are unconscious. This could either range from exhaustion, lack of sleep or the brief brawl that broke out earlier, Wattson and Loudred being the cause. Flarea soon put an end to that and is now quite happily finishing off her Tamato Berry feast.

"Things got real messy, real quick earlier." She tells Gracie, who's sat next to her, drinking some Sitrus Punch. "But honestly, despite what today was meant to be, I wouldn't have it any other way."

She giggles at her friend's honesty, making her look her way.

"What?"

"It's just a lot of the time you complain about how the guild is and how they spend their spare time. And you say you're gonna miss it now." She giggles again before adding "Make your mind up, Flare."

Flarea huffs, looking away and blushing lightly. "If I was an expert on making my mind up, things would have gone a lot different during the whole ordeal with Darkrai."

Gracie sighs and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, don't remind me..I'm surprised we got outta that alive to be honest."

"I'm not." Flarea states with a smirk.

"W-what?! How can you be-"

"We're the good side, remember?"

"Huh?"

"The ones with something to fight for! The ones who fight for justice! We fight to protect and not let the innocents get hurt. Well...if we can help it anyway." She giggles lightly.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Bad guys fall if any of their hope is lost. When good guys seem seem like they're about to lose, they remind themselves of who they're protecting and what they're fighting for. Remember..." She doesn't want to have to use this example buuuuut...

"Y'know how Bolt turned the tide in the battle with Dialga?"

Gracie slowly nods, sighing.

"More than likely, he thought about the messed up future you and him saw. If you failed, it'd stay that way. Neither of you wanted that, and Bolt knew that. You were unconscious, clinging to life for all he knew. That's why he turned Pikachu and let you recover. Having somebody to fight for. That's why we win."

"...You're right."

"I know...and sorry I used Bolt as an example."

"It's fine, Flare. Just mentioning him makes me all the more hyped to see him again. Anyway, should we head out now? If we head out, we should make it past Craggy Coast and to the entrance of Mt. Horn by sundown."

"...Yeah, I think this party's over. Weirdly enough, this punch hasn't been drunk yet. Was it made from Sitrus Berries?"

She nods. "I can definitely taste juiced up Sitrus in there."

"Good enough. I'll grab the ladle, you get our downed lizard friend." She grabs the handle of the ladle in her mouth, while Gracie opens the mouth of Wattson, who is completely out of it. Flarea scoops up a large amount of punch and, hovering it right above Wattson, she pours it directly into his mouth, while Gracie helps the liquid travel safely through his throat and into his system.

Straight away, his wounds heal up, and he jumps up, awake.

"Wattson's back, baby!" He shouts, pulling a victory pose.

"...Yo, thunder nut." Flarea flatly calls him, making him turn around. "We're headin' out."

"Do we have everything?" Gracie asks her.

"We left the stuff back at the guild. We're going past there anyway." Flarea states before turning over to Wigglytuff, who's just regained consciousness. "Hey, Guildmaster! We're heading out!"

"Oh! Already? Wait...how long have I been out?" He asks, getting up and putting a hand (?) to his mouth in wonder.

"Ummm...around 6 hours." Flarea answers, shrugging.

"..Oh." He then giggles child-like. "Well did you enjoy your going away party?" All three explorers nod their heads. "Yaay!" He does a little dance before turning back to them. "Well now that you've had a good time with your guildmates, time to head out and find our missing ones!"

"Wait, missing one-s-?!" Flarea takes a step back, glaring at him.

"O-oops...did I say that out loud...? Silly me...Heehee.." He gives her an innocent smile, hoping she'll drop it it.

Thankfully she does as she sees her friends motioning her to just head out with them. "Fine..let's go. Tell Blaze the situation, will ya? I don't want her worryin' about me when she returns, thinkin' I just ran off, leavin' her to you guys."

"Will do, Flarea! Have a safe trip you three!"

As the three explorers start their travels to the unknown, Wigglytuff remembers that Chatot seemed a little uneasy after the Pelipper had arrived. With that in mind, he turns and walks towards Sharpedo Bluff.

Sure enough, as he arrives there, he sees Chatot looking out into the ocean. He sighs and goes to sit next to his friend. Good thing he brought an Apple.

"Chatot. I knew you felt uneasy earlier, but to think you didn't return to see Team IceBurn off."

Chatot sighs and continues looking out. "Wigglytuff. As Guildmaster, you take on the responsibilities of the lives of all of your guildmembers, correct?"

"...That's correct. As guildmaster, I feel obliged to take responsibility for everything my guildmates do. Well...in terms of damage to public property anyway." He chuckles and rubs the back of his head. "But...what's this got to do with anything?"

"Pelipper came with news about the PokeKindergarten."

"You mean where..."

"Yes. And it was specifically her that the news was about. A Vespiquen started harrassing them because apparently, they trespassed on the territory of her swarm. It caused quite a commotion around the group of young ones...that Blaze has gone missing from them. Poor Mistress Nidoqueen was in tears when she couldn't find her."

"...Flarea..."

"Yes...if she'd have gotten wind of this before she went, she'd have stayed behind for any clues to her whereabouts."

"No, she would have gone anyway. But finding her would have been her top priority. You know how protective Flarea is over Blaze. She worries about her like I do with my guildmates."

"We were lucky to get Flarea to let Blaze join PokeKindergarten in the first place..now this has happened...Flarea's going to want to keep an eye on her 24/7."

"Mmhmm. She's not going to want to trust Nidoqueen again."

"Yes...so..what's the plan of action?"

"We let IceBurn get their stuff and go. Then we tell the rest of the guild to stay on high alert for news or leads to Blaze. Then we tell Team Geyser plus Bibarel to search, and get Team Charm on the job as well."

"You're taking quite overkill precautions aren't you?"

"Child of the guild missing, Chatot. Besides, even if we don't find her, there's a possibility Bolt or her father will."

**CHAPTER END**

**So...the identity of Blaze will be revealed later in the story. Though you guys can draw your own conclusions or theories :p**

**No Team Soul this chapter, but most of next chapter will focus on them, if not all!**

**Ciao for now!**


	3. A Buzzy Situation!

**Chapter 3: A Buzzy Situation**

**Sorry about the long wait, guise. Had some stuff to sort out, things to do, oh, and the sunny weather (which is almost nonexistent in England) needed to be enjoyed after a stressful college year!**

**So sit back and enjoy new content.**

* * *

Ah, the sunset. It's a serene time of day that allows one to reflect upon the events of the past day. To think about what they've learnt during said events, and make resolutions for the future based on their experiences of today.

Surely if sunset's used for that purpose, everybody's making use of it, right? Right?

Not on your life.

A certain Growlithe, Mawile, Pikachu and Pichu are catching their breath after managing to escape a forest filled with mostly bug types, such as Caterpies, Wurmples and Scatterbugs. Though with a fire type like Inferno among the team, they'd have no problems, right? Wrong. There were also Surskits and the odd Volcarona in the wild as well. Sure, Bolt and Kami could see them off, but they'd get swarmed eventually.

"Guys…..next time we see a random job request that involves a Vespiquen and Combee hive and Peppered Rawst Berries...let's not take it." Inferno suggests, panting from all the running.

"Well...I have an even better idea." Titania says, standing up. "If it pays good, yeah we'll take it. We'll just leave you outside while we collect the reward." Bolt laughs a little at her remark.

"Well at least we got the money….that'll last us, right?"

"Maybe, Bolt." Titania nods, looking at the electric type. "Only problem is, if the Combee eventually catch us, then we'll have to pay the damages."

"Meaning that we-"

"Yes, that means giving them their money back, and the rest of ours."

"Oh, crap." Bolt and Inferno exclaim at the same time, causing them to glance at each other, eyebrows raised.

"Look...we just need to get to where it's completely safe, and hopefully, we won't run into Big Queen Buzz." Titania states, looking out towards the nearest town.

"What a first mission this turned out to be…" Bolt remarks, then looks at Inferno again. "Who knew pepper was one of your greatest weaknesses?"

"Hey, I only sneezed!"

"Yeah, then said sneeze proceeded to set the whole of the Combee hive alight! No wonder they're pissed." Bolt says, rolling his eyes.

"Pfft. Well what'd weaken you? Gracie's smile?"

At this, Bolt breaks out into a huge blush. "O-of course not!...It'd make me stronger if anything."

"Hopeless romantic." Inferno calls him, snickering.

"Titania, Inferno's being mean!...Titania?" Bolt looks over at her, but sees she's looking around. "..What're you doin-" Bolt then looks around, and sees that the party is minus a mouse. "...Where'd Kami go?"

"Whaddaya mean where'd she go? Like she'd leave us beh-" Inferno looks around to see that the smaller thunder mouse has indeed seemingly disappeared. "...Come on, kid, where're ya hidin'? Cause this isn't exactly a great situation to be playing these sorts of games right now.."

At that point, all attention is turned to Titania, as she reads a note that she found in the bushes. A look of shock and anger on her face.

"Titania…?" They both ask, before the note is shoved into Bolt's paws.

"Read. Now." She demands, her voice shaky, prompting him to nod and look down at the paper.

"_We have your little Pichu friend. Now here's our ultimatum to you. You have until sunrise to pay us back the money we gave you. _

_6am at the latest. If you fail to meet the deadline...we will not be held responsible for what happens to the Pichu."_

Now all these things happen in the order they're described. Bolt lets out an unintelligible swear word directed at the absent bug types. He then tears apart the note and screws it up. He then proceeds to electrify the screwed up paper and lastly, he hurls it further into the forest, a passing Surskit.

"Whoa whoa whoa, dude, calm your jets…" Inferno tries to console him, which manages to work, as Bolt's rapid breathing comes to a slow pace once again.

"...So that's how low they're going? Hostage situations and death threats?" Bolt rhetorically asks out loud, his paw clenched and crackling with thunder.

"All because a certain someone forgot to mention about his inability to handle pepper." Titania remarks, looking towards a certain fire type.

"It's not my fault! I couldn't control it!"

"Still came along though…" Bolt facepalms and looks around the forest. "The note never said where exactly to bloody meet them!"

"Yeah, that's really gonna help us get the money back to them and our team mate back for sunrise!" Titania says through gritted teeth, with a touch of sarcasm.

"Y'know what? How about this. We split up and search. And if any of us find anything, here's how we're going to signal each other. If I find anything, I fire a Thunderbolt into the sky. Titania, fire Flash Cannon into the sky. Inferno?...Just howl. We don't really need something else setting alight without good reason." At this, Inferno gives a disgruntled snort.

"Okay. Good luck everyone."

And with that, Team Soul split up for searching.

* * *

What was the first indication that a member of Team Soul came across something? A single ear piercing scream fresh from the lungs of a certain Steel/Fairy type. For clarification, this is what happened….

_"Ugh, why is is so hard to find a simple stupid hive? Weren't we meant to be travelling? Inferno, I am so going to kill you when we finally get going again."_

_This is Titania talking to herself as she continues down the random path she's chosen, stomping through the forest, teeth gritted. _

"_Yeah….quick Focus Punch to the face, that'll teach him a lesson.."_

_Then, she stops, and looks around. Quite quickly as well._

"_Oh, great. I'm lost! First we lose a child, and now I lose myself! Ugh….sure tonight can't get any worse…."_

_She starts stomping in a random direction again, before tripping over something yellow, making her faceplant into the ground. Missing a few beats, she growls and hops to her feet, kicking the yellow object, making it roll a few times before stopping. But sadly, as it stops, the Mawile immediately recognises what the yellow object is._

_It isn't really an object at all._

_It's a Kakuna._

_And judging by the glare it's giving her and the glint in its eye, it's not very happy that its been kicked._

In a nutshell, just after that, the Kakuna evolved, and a huge swarm of the evolved form, Beedrill, came out of nowhere. Which is what caused Titania to scream.

Beedrill of all things.

This really isn't her night.

Right now, the Mawile is hightailing it out of there, with a Beedrill swarm hot on her tail.

Almost immediately, what does she see jetting into the skies? A column of flame. Oh yeah. He'd better have been in a clearing when he let that or Titania's gonna give him even more than a Focus Punch to the face. No doubt he heard her scream anyway.

She changes her course, heading for where the fire came from.

"_I'd get my badge out and find out where they are from that, but….I'm being careful not to trip over another Arceus-damned Kakuna!" _

The Mawile looks back while running, only to see the leading Beedrill's stingers glowing white, which, in turn, causes Titania's face to go pale.

"_That's either Pin Missile or Twin Needle...I don't wanna stick around to find out which!" _As she turns her head back around to see where she's running, she doesn't see the rest of the swarm's stingers starting to glow white as well.

Then they all fire off Pin Missile, straight for her.

"Ugh, dammit. What in the Distortion World's name is taking Titania so long? I gave her a signal of where I am, so what gives?"

* * *

The Growlithe who shot off the Flamethrower to get his team mate's attention is impatiently pacing in circles, mumbling to himself.

"I mean, come on, Ti, you never take this long to regroup after a split search. Especially after I've given you a means to find me!...Titania? Hello?"

And putting it lightly….he's getting really, really nervous.

"Seriously, this isn't funny….In fact it's getting rather annoying….."

His ears drooping for the moment, he decides to grab his team badge. He's used this to communicate with Titania before. Concentrating, he closes his eyes and reaches his thoughts out to her.

"_Titania? Titania, you there?"_

…

"Nothing. Eh, maybe this thing's on the fritz. Lemme try calling thunder rat."

"_Yo, Boltorb! You there?"_

"_Yeah, I'm here! And don't call me Boltorb. All Voltorbs can do is roll about and explode."_

"_Well to their credit it seems to work, ya shocking racist."_

"_Moving swiftly on, what in Arceus' name are you playing at with the Flamethrower in the forest, Muttly?"_

"_I'm in a clearing, I'm not gonna set anything alight!"_

"_Didn't stop you from setting that Combee hive alight, which is what caused this whole mess in the first place.."_

"_Dude, if you mention that again, I'll drop you when we meet back up."_

"_I'll take you up on that, but for now we need to concentrate on finding Kami. Those black and yellow bastards are gonna feel pain when we find them."_

"_Damn straight. By the way, have ya heard from Titania? I've tried communicating with her and I can't seem to get anything."_

"_Did you leave a message after the beep?"_

"_Quit joking around, Titania could be in legit trouble here! I mean did you hear her scream?!"_

"_That was probably to lull any enemy nearby into a false sense of security. She doesn't seem like the type to just give up the ghost like that!"_

"_You don't know her like I do, Bolt."_

"_Whatever, man."_

At that moment, Inferno glances somewhere to see what looks like a silhouette of a Mawile.

"_Never mind, Bolt! I've found her!"_

"_Gotcha, dude! Bolt out!"_

He watches the Mawile disappear into the trees before bounding after it.

"_She almost had me worried there...wait, what am I thinking?! She's grown tougher since I met her!"_

But it's when he finally catches up with the Mawile, is when he realises he's got the wrong one.

How does he know?

Well for one, she's not wearing the type colour coded wristbands.

It doesn't smell like her, and being a dog like Pokemon, his nose is sensitive.

And to top it all off, this Mawile is a shiny.

And she's giving him a weird look of amusement.

"Inferno of Team Unknown, correct?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"U-uuhhm...it's Team Soul now. Heh. Needed a name change since we became not so unknown, y'know?" Inferno by now is pretty much sweating a little. He doesn't know what this newcomer wants, nor why she's in the forest in the middle of the night.

"Uh huh...Soo...what's an explorer like you doing in Honey Woods in the middle of the night?"

"For your information, we're looking for a lost team mate, who's been kidnapped by a bunch of cocky Combee and this stupid Vespiquen!"

The Mawile chuckles and shakes her head. "You get on the bad side of the hive, did ya? What did you do? Talk back to the queen? Hurt one of her subjects?"

"No, I finished a job for her and sneezed, setting it alight, but that's not the point! What're you doing out here?"

"Oh, not much, not much…" She leans against a tree, casually. "Just exploring myself….well, along with a teammate."

* * *

"Gah, bloody elusive hives! We're not gonna get Kami back at this rate!"

The annoyed Pikachu walks through the forest, his brow furrowed and chomping on an Oran berry.

"I swear if they lay one stinger on her, I'm gonna-"

The flashing of his badge interrupts his little rant, and to be on the safe side, he grabs them both to see which one's glowing.

"Good, it's not the Team Element badge….wait...then that means either Titania or Inferno-"

"_**There's only one being alive I know that coordinates such an organised swarm such as yourselves."**_

"...What the crap?" Bolt exclaims, a little weirded out by these words. This is Titania's voice, but she sure as heck sounds pissed off. In fact, the badge allows for a small vision of Titania now, stood tall in front of a massive swarm of Beedrill.

"Wait…..why the hell has she got two sets of jaws on her head and not one?"

"_**I know that you work under him. And I know how you got here. But one thing's for sure, and you can tell this to your 'master', you mindless bunch of Mareep. I am never, -ever- going back to that horrid life again."**_

On cue, two huge beams of light emit from the somewhere, followed by the cries of a few dozen Beedrill. Bolt looks up at the beams, and is in complete awe of their power. Seriously, his jaw is hanging and everything. "W….whoa…" He manages to choke out. Despite knowing Titania for a few days, he hasn't seen her in a proper battle before. So to think that she can output a Flash Cannon of this Magnitude **(A/N See what I did thar? :p) **is staggering. Saviour of the world 10 years ago? That may be, but he still has quite a long way to go before he can be as strong as that.

"Quite a nice light show, don't ya think?" A female voice rings out from beside him.

"Y-yeah….my friend did that." He answers back without looking who said that.

"Your friend? Who is your friend exactly?"

"Her name's Titania. A Mawile." He answers, still not looking in the direction of the voice, despite the Flash Cannon having stopped now.

"Mawile...named Titania…..Oh! Team Unknown Titania!"

"Uhm, actually, Team Unknown's been renamed to Team So-" He stops again as he finally turns to the source of the voice. An Absol. His eyes narrow a little bit. "Uhhhmmm...excuse me but I thought Absol roamed on mountain terrain?"

"Oh, I'm just exploring...with a friend." the Absol answers, her face completely deadpan.

Bolt stands there, his face remaining completely neutral for a few moments before lightening up.

"Oh, okay then! You two separated? Cause I only see one of you."

"Well no duh. Then again, we decided to split up and cover more ground in a quicker time."

"Wait, I thought the whole point of exploring was to take time to look around? You're basically just seeing which one of you can find treasure, look around and get back to the starting point in a set time."

A little taken aback by the bluntness of the Pikachu, the Absol reels back, flustered. "W-what are you….? Ugh. Never mind. So you know Titania?"

"Yeah, I know Titania, she's in my team!...Well..I'm in her team, since I'm a new guy." Bolt says with a small chuckle.

"Uh..huh. Didn't know they employed rats into a team like theirs."

"R..rats?!" Bolt glares at the newcomer, obviously insulted by the Absol's words. "You take that back! I ain't a rat!"

"Look at the size of you! You're so tiny!" She says with a high voice, obviously mocking the electric type. "Cute cheeks so chubby I could squeeze them! I just wanna put a little bow on your head and make you my little pe-"

"Shut up! I'm a mouse!"

"Then you're even smaller and insignificant!"

"Grrrrr..!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding..So what're you doing in this neck of the woods this late at night?"

"Looking for a friend. Well..now I'm not, because a) there was a light show in the sky and b) you're here and I'm talking to you!"

"Are in that much of a rush? Cause it suuure seems like it."

"Well no shit! I have to find her by sunrise, taking along the money that me and my friends got from this stupid job that we took from this stupid hive that my stupid friend set alight, by pure accident of course, or Vespiquen and her cronies are probably gonna kill her! I'm not letting that happen, no way!" He punches the tree next to him in pure anger.

His outburst makes Absol flinch a little, but she gives out a small chuckle after she's regained her composure. "Look, kid. I don't know who it is you're trying to look for, but you might as well...what's wrong with you?"

Her question is simply because Bolt is holding his head, seemingly spaced out.

"_Whoa. Random tree, and it's bringing out the Scream? But why? Wait….I'm getting something.."_

A vision has the same Absol in front of him, lied against the tree, talking to herself.

"_5 more minutes, and I'll go find Violet. Damn. Who knew that finding those Unknown brats, especially Violet's little sis would be this much of a challenge?"_

"_Unknown? Little sis? What in the heck is she-"_

"_And that's just one part of our job! Then we gotta somehow drag her all the way back to the rendezvous point in Northern Desert without being noticed! I don't know who Shard's boss thinks we are, but that's impossible…" _Just then, he hears his own voice ring out, and so does the Absol.

"_Stupid Combee. Stupid Vespiquen. Them and their stupid flammable hives, kidnapping our stupid-...Just gonna stop myself there before I say anything I'm going to regret later."_

And the vision ends there. Bolt regains himself, and looks over at the Absol. Of course the Absol is clueless, but Bolt's eyes narrow.

"Who's Violet?"

"What? I don't know what you-"

"Northern Desert? Rendezvous point?" His eyes narrow further. "You're after Kami, ain't ya?! Who are you?!"

It's the Absol's turn to look clueless, but she stands her ground. "Violet's my friend. And my name's Blake. And who's K-"

"Shut up!" Bolt's cheeks crackle with ferocity. "We're gonna be the ones to find Kami and go! I've made a promise to protect her! I am -not- letting some lowlifes get ahold of her! She's been through enough!"

* * *

On Inferno's end, he can hear everything, as Bolt's broadcast it through to him using the badge. And now, his eyes are narrowed at the Mawile in front of him.

"What's stuck up your craw all of a sudden, firebreather?"

"Oh nothing. It's just you're after one of my friends."

The Mawile at first looks mildly surprised, then chuckles, smirking.

"I don't know how you figured it out, torch mutt, but I have to admit, you're pretty clever. Alright then. Seeing as I know your name, I may as well tell you mine."

"I already know your friend's name is Blake. Your friend is the Absol, right…?"

"Yeah, that's her. Nice girl."

"That must mean you're Violet!" Inferno roars, his mouth heating up.

"Heh. Remember it well, Mutt. Cause it's gonna be the last thing you do." She brings up her hands, then thrusts them forward. "Sandstorm!"

* * *

Meanwhile, on the edge of a quiet town, atop a building, a figure wearing a hat sits on the edge, watching said quiet town.

With a careful eye and a stoic expression, he huffs and crosses his arms.

"It's quiet." He draws a claw and scratches his back. "Too quiet."

With a sigh, he lies back, putting his arms behind his head, looking up at the night sky.

"If I wasn't much of a promise keeper, I dare say I'd have gone places."

It's then, that an unknown sound can be heard down in a nearby alleyway.

His eyes open wide, and immediately, he jumps off the top of the building, which isn't very tall, and lands perfectly.

The figure is a Meowth, with a stetson, a red neck scarf and what looks like two cowboy boots on his feet. This Meowth has obviously chosen to be bipedal.

"Luckily, cats always land on their feet. Now, what was that noise….?" He starts making his way to the alleyway, being quiet with his steps.

Looking down it, he at first sees nothing.

"Ugh...curse my ears. They love to work at the wrong times."

Right as he says that though, he hears something...or someone..shivering.

"It's a Pokemon. Not a bad one, I hope." He quietly says as he makes his way down it, he carefully looks into a cardboard box, which his ears lead him to, and he's shocked at what he sees.

A Vulpix.

A shiny one at that.

* * *

**Finally done!**

**Now, I know I'm probably overusing shinies, but eeeh...what can ya do XD**

**Next chapter won't take as long, I promise!**

**Ciao!**


	4. Tag Battle!

_**The Quest To Reunite With You**_

_**Chapter 4: Tag Battle! Bolt and Inferno vs Blake and Violet!**_

**And here we are with another chapter! This chapter will focus on the imminent battle between the boys of Team Soul and the two newcomers! But first...**

* * *

"_Uggh...where am I?This feels familiar..."_

Titania fidgets for a few moments, before she slowly wakes up, finding herself in..some sort of room? This _is _familiar. _"Wait..this isn't..."_

"Finally woke up, have you...?"

Titania's eyes widen and she looks over at whoever said that, and her breathing quickens, as the shadow of someone she recognises all too well shadows over her.

"I was wondering when you'd come back to us, little Mawile." This figure's tone is a menacing tone, as he looks down at her. As Titania tries moving her arms and legs, a horrifying realisation comes to her.

She can't.

"W-what..hey! Let me go!" She struggles, trying to break free of the ropes holding her. She tries activating an attack to free herself, but for some reason, she ends up getting shocked by electicity.

"So, you're one of those, aren't you? Those self thinking Pokemon that have been showing up recently. Those Pokemon that for some reason can speak like us." The figure paces left and right slowly, yet hauntingly. "You Pokemon seem like complete geniuses. And you know something? It makes me sick. Sickeningly daunting to know there are Pokemon that could potentially build armies to take us down. You and your little teams. Forget it." The figure looks back at her and smirks maniacally. "I've worked too hard to be taken down a peg by the likes of you."

"You're pathetic! All of you! Kidnapping innocent Pokemon just to work for the likes of you! You think you're clever?! You're absolutely pathet-AAAAGH!" The Mawile is shocked once again by the ropes. But she didn't even use an attack!

"You don't need to use an attack for me to be able to shock you silly. Now if you'll co-operate, maybe you won't end up like your older brother."

"Jin?! What did you do to Jin you sick bastard?!" Once again, talking back gives her no favours as the figure reaches up and pulls down a lever, shocking the Mawile and making her cry out in pain. Soon, the shocking stops and she lies there, panting lightly, and smoke rising from her. "O-ooww..."

"Excellent. I haven't put him out completely, but I will...IF you don't co-operate with me." His tone sounds calm, sinister and downright vicious, and Titania's will dissipates, as what sounds like a drill sounds out in the background. Eventually, it comes into view, and just before the drill bit, is a rainbow coloured symbol that looks like the universal DNA emblem, right above a red capital 'R'.

"WW-what is that...?" She asks, a little weakly.

"Once I've finished with you, you'll be the perfect soldier in my Pokemon army. To the Distortion World with "bonds" and all of that soppy filth. Once the stone is implanted within you, you can just activate it at will. And you will fight on our side."

"...I..I'll do it...if you promise to set Jin free once you've done.."

The drill descends upon the bound Mawile, slowly and menacingly, if that were even possible. As Titania starts shaking where she lie, the figure starts lowly laughing, and the closer the drill goes, the louder the figure laughs.

Soon, the mixture of the drill and the man laughing starts to distort, and Titania's vision starts to fade, until it goes to black.

* * *

"AGH!" Titania shoots up awake, sweating and panting, eyes dilated, but this time, instead of waking up in a dark room, she finds herself in what looks like a room inside of a tree.

"_Just...just what happened there?" _She brings up her arms and looks at them, she decides the best plan of action is to slap herself across the face. She dead-pans straight afterwards and rubs her face, sweat-dropping. _"Figures. _That_ had to decide to haunt me again. The guy was an absolute nut. I don't even remember how...wait.." _

She pauses in her thoughts and looks around the room she's in.

"_Where even am I? This place looks really homey and cosy. Whoever brought me here must have found me after I buzzed that stupid swarm off. And I just made a pun. Fantastic." _She looks down and sees that the owner of the place has covered her up in a blanket. This makes her smile warmly, chuckling. _"At least I was taken in by somebody with a good heart. And this blanket _is _comfy. But hold on...just _who _took me in anyway?" _As she lies back on her pillow, her question is swiftly answered. "Aaah!"

Hovering right above her with a grin is a Vivillon, who just laughs a little at her reaction. "Hey!"

By the sound of the Vivillon's voice, she can tell it's a female. And the pattern is red at the top parts of the wings and white at the bottom.

"Finally, you're awake! I mean, you haven't been out cold for too long, maybe 15 minutes or so, but still, I saw the whole thing and it was awesome."

"What part, when I let loose? Or when I fell on my face unconscious?" Titania asks, a little weirded out by the Vivillon's outgoing personality.

"The first one, duh! Geeze, what's up with you, Miss Grumpy?" She asks, giggling lightly.

"Well, aside from faceplanting on the ground, I kind of had a little bit of a nightmare about something that happened to me before!"

"Oh.." the bug type thinks for a moment, before fixing her eyes on Titania. "Soo..what was it about? Can ya tell me?"

"Uhhhh...eh, sorry. It's kind of a personal thing I don't like sharing with just anyone."

"Oh...sensitive subject..?" The Vivillon asks meekly, thinking she overstepped the line, to which Titania nods, her expression softening.

"_Poor Vivillon. I must look ungrateful."_ "Don't get me wrong, Vivillon, I really _really _don't mean anything by it. I am really grateful to you for taking me in like this, but you really wouldn't like to hear it."

"And you seem to like to say 'really' a lot in your sentences!" She rebuttles with a slight giggle.

"What're you-" She interrupts herself and thinks back to her previous sentence, then blushes lightly in embarrassment and face-palms, giggling lightly. "Oh yeah..guess I do."

The two break out into a mini giggling fit before calming down. All the while, Titania can hardly believe that she's already starting to feel safe around the bug type. Then again, she did bring her into this place, so that'll be it. Yeah.

"S-sorry, sorry, we're already starting to get giggly and I don't even know your name." Titania calms down and looks at the Vivillon, smiling normally now. "Is it just Vivillon or, do you have a proper name to go by?"

"Oh! Sorry. Where are my manners?" She giggles a little more before introducing herself. "I'm Jasmine!"

"Oh! That sounds like a name you'd give a human. Very rare to meet a Pokemon with a human name."

"It is? Well my mom gave me the name because when I hatched, the room smelt of jasmine."

Titania can't help but internally face-palm at her mistake. "Oh. Well that works too!"

Jasmine giggles at the Mawile's small mistake. "Oh, don't worry, I'm pretty savvy to that little mistake. The last Pokemon I met that came through made the very same boo boo and me and her became pretty great friends! In fact, I keep in touch with her! A few of her letters are on my desk over in the corner!"

Titania tries getting up, and manages to actually stagger up. "Uhmm...how can I walk?"

Jasmine giggles once again. "Silly. You only passed out, you didn't have many major injures that kept you from walking."

The Mawile just shrugs before walking to the corner of the room and grabbing two letters. She brings them back to the made up bed, sitting on the blanket. "Okay, let's see this."

"_Dear Jasmine._

_Hope things are going well, no results yet again, but I'm still remaining confident!_

_How're things your end? Still waiting for that perfect exploration team to come along? We still wish you could join us, Jas, you'd have been a great addition to our ranks, and the you and the Guildmaster would really get along!_

_Oh well, hope your wait pays off! Here's hoping mine will!_

_Graceon~"_

"Graceon's her nickname! Well, the one I gave her anyway. And it makes sense to be honest! Her colour was kinda rare! Kinda like mine, but she was shiny! It looked adorable on her! But don't tell her I said that, because I want at least a few more months before winter arrives for me." She giggles.

"Who's she waiting for? Friend? Former teammate?...Lover?"

"Judging by her resilience, I'm guessing all of the above. I mean I've been looking myself to be honest, but all the ones I've seen that look like him turn out to be not him. And 50% of the time, I've ended up getting zapped."

"...How did you act when you found them, and maybe I could give you an answer why?" Titania asks her, probably guessing why she got zapped.

"I pulled them by their tails into the air, shouting in a giddy way." Jasmine puts bluntly.

"And what species does this Pokemon belong to?"

"Pikachu."

"Ah. Then there's your answer. Pikachu don't like being picked up by their tail."

"Ohhh...that explains why that female one got really ratty at me. Or it could be to do with the fact that I accidentally lifted her up during the Pikachu mating season." Jasmine sheepishly remarks, shuddering.

"Dare I ask what she did to you?"

"Well, when I woke up in hospital, it definitely wasn't Pika season any more."

"Well, to avoid it next time, two things I need to advise you to do: 1) Make sure it isn't Pika season and 2) check the tail."

Jasmine tilts her head. "Why check the tail?"

"Female Pikachu have heart shaped tails."

"Ooohhhh..I just thought something had happened and given her state, I didn't wanna ask."

Titania face-palms and chuckles again, shaking her head. _"I'm already starting to like this Vivillon a lot." _But just then, she remembers why she's in Honey Forest. "Oh crap! Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!"

"Whatwhatwhatwhatwhat?" Jasmine asks, not so sure why she's suddenly had a change of mood.

A frantic change at that.

"My friends! I nearly forgot my friends are still out there searching for the central hive of the Combee! Another friend of ours, only young as well, has been taken hostage by them and I was searching for them when those Beedrill appeared!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, you said you were on your way to retrieve a kidnapped friend from the Combee and the Vespiquen main hive?"

Titania nods.

"Are you freakin' crazy?! They practically run the entirity of Honey Forest and the surrounding areas! They can get the Pokemon of all of those areas on you if they wanted to! How can you expect to-"

Before she can ramble, she's grabbed near to the throat and pulled face to face with Titania. "Listen up, Jasmine. But they've done something that can't ever be taken lightly, and can only be described as pretty petty and pathetic. And dangerous for them. They've threatened to do who knows what to her if we don't get to them and pay them by sunrise, and that is low by all accounts."

Jasmine looks back into Titania's eyes and can see the fire burning in her eyes in determination to take back their teammate.

"...Alright. But please rest up first? You still used up a lot of mana in that last attack, and I'm sure Treasure Town plus a lot more explorers saw that."

Titania pauses for a moment before letting go of Jasmine and relenting, sitting down and huffing.

"Do you know where the hive is, Jasmine?"

She nods and smiles. "I followed a horde of Combee on their way back there. And thanks to that, I know the place. Oh, and Honey Forest is a class C mystery dungeon. So if you're adamant about chasing your friend, you won't have a problem going through the forest itself. Just remember it's what's at the end of the forest that counts."

"I've heard the saying 'looks can be decieving'." She chuckles a little bit and gets up, stretching.

"I never got your name, I totally forgot! I tell you my name and never say mi-"

"Titania. And don't worry about it, alright? Thanks for taking me in and letting me rest." She smiles warmly at the bug type.

"No problem!" She smiles widely, fluttering around the room, humming, while Titania sits back down on the bed, hoping her two teammates are alright.

* * *

Violet is stood with her back to the tree, confused, and slightly burned, but still ready to fight.

Inferno is stood smirking, meanwhile, paw scraping at the floor, raring to go.

"H-how..how did you see through my psyche?! How did you know I wouldn't use it?!"

"Eh, a cocky Sandslash had the same idea last week. I bet you don't even know it, do you?"

Violet stays silent at that, not ready to move. Inferno chuckles.

"Nice move, shiner. Now bring it for real!" He cloaks himself in fire and lunges forward. "Flame Charge!" He slams into her, sending her through the tree, and she lands on her back, groaning. He grins and lunges forward once again, going in for a Quick Attack, and Violet manages to dodge, growling at the Growlithe. (**A/N lel**)

"Don't get cocky, mutt."

"Why not? Already hit you with two Fire type attacks." He retorts with a chuckle, before letting loose another Flamethrower.

Violet sighs and smirks. "This is already getting old. Stone Edge!" She brings her arms forward, as pointed stones appear around her, before shooting forth, cutting through the fire attack and striking the Growlithe in a super effective hit.

"Aaahhh!" Inferno cries out in pain as the pointed stones dig into him, and the force makes him skid back and after it dies off, he's on his knees panting. "D-damn..that was fierce."

The shiny Mawile folds her arms and closes her eyes, smirking up a storm.

"Not so tough when the tables have turned, huh? You're what they call a glass cannon. Fast mover, but take a hit and boom! Down. Endurance is, putting it bluntly, crap."

Her bravado is cut short, however, as she's nailed by another Flame Charge, sending her flying back, and after a few flips, lands on her belly, groaning.

"Now THAT'S how you pull a psyche! Oh, and for the record? Attack can be the best defence. That's how I roll, rose cheeks."

She huffs and gets back up, shakily, and glaring at the fire type. "I know that's how you pull a psyche, fire breathing idiot."

"You didn't do it right before, how would you think you'd do better now?" He sniggers lowly before whipping up one more Flame Charge and lunging at her.

She simply smirks back, before bring up her hands, and a Sandstorm whips up right in front of her, and with that, Inferno gets caught up with it, and it stops him immediately, trapping him in it.

"Nnnnghh...I thought you didn't know...O-Oohhh...you cheeky...devious little.."

"Psyche."

"Just wait till I get outta here, bitchface! Imma burn ya, beat ya, and burn ya some more!" He wriggles and squirms around in the Sandstorm, trying to break free.

"Don't bother trying to get out. As long as I stand, this Sandstorm remains."

"_Ugh...come on, Bolt...I need you to pull through and help me out..."_

* * *

Explosions of electricity and shadowy energy blow throughout the forest, as the raging battle between the two Pokemon goes on.

Blake the Absol fires Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball at the moving Pikachu, who's dodging them all with a determined look on his face. "Not gonna get me down, Blake! I'm not easily brought down!" Electricity starts to crackle around him, and then a cone of it covers him as he speeds up and starts charging towards Blake, dodging the Shadow Balls hurtling towards him.

"Pesky little rat!" She charges up a Hyper Beam, then lets it loose. The Hyper Beam and the charging Bolt collide, and there's a brief struggle for dominance before the beam wins, sending Bolt flying back, hitting a tree and falling to the floor, panting.

He struggles to get back up, but as soon as he is, he smirks. "You actually aren't bad to be fair, I mean I've met a lot of strong Pokemon and battled with them. Nice one, you're one of them now! I ain't holding back."

"Let's rumble! Dark Pulse!" She charges up the attack and lets loose a purply black beam at the Pikachu, whose paws start to swirl with a rainbow coloured energy.

"It's on! Signal Beam!" He thrusts his paws forward, shooting the peculiar beam to counter the Dark Pulse (**A/N Kind of like a Kamehameha**).

The two beams collide, and they cause an explosion, kicking up some dust between them. Blake takes this chance and fires off some Razor Winds into the dust, hoping that she hit him at least once with it.

But to her horror, a glowing can be seen in the dust, and Bolt leaps out of it, his tail glowing a metallic white, and he flips over a few times, slamming it down on the top of the head.

"Aagh!" Her face hits the floor, as Bolt bounces away, grinning, and landing on his feet, dusting himself off.

"In your face!" (**A/N Ba dum tssh!**)

Blake takes her face out of ground and glares at him, growling. "How did I not hit you?!"

"Well..you couldn't see me, and you were shooting random Razor Winds into the dust hoping to see me. How much more of a smartass do I need to be?" He sniggers, before getting hit in the face by a Shadow Ball, staggering back. When he comes back to, he sees multiple clones of Blake, all of them laughing at him.

"Double Team...?"

"Damn right!" They all chorus. "Where's all that bravado now, thunder rat?!" All of them start charging up a Shadow Ball.

"...Y'know? I've got a reason to fight you. If I don't you're not gonna leave me alone. I'm on a mission to find a little Pichu, who I've grown close to in the past week." Electricity starts to course throughout his body. "What kind of Taurosshit excuse do you have of keeping me held up? Some guy told you to find somebody and you decided to mess with me? Get wrecked, bitch." Two Electro Balls appear in both of his paws, and he brings them above his head, bringing them both together, enlarging it. He the slams it down onto the ground in front of him, sending a shock wave outwards around him. The shock wave hits all the Absol around him, dissipating them, then the real Blake is revealed as the electricity hits her, making her skid back, then stunning her temporarily. But that temporary stun is all the time Bolt needs, cloaking himself in enough electricity for Volt Tackle.

"_W-what is this Pikachu?!" _Blake thinks to herself. _"I lost to a Pikachu. How does that even ha-"_

And just like that, Blake is sent flying over rows of trees, out of Bolt's sight. He stands back up on his back feet and looks up at where she went flying, and he then flinches at the recoil damage, rubbing his head. "Ow..that Absol just about made me dizzy..." He runs in the direction she went flying.

* * *

"_O-okay...I gotta get out of this...I'm runnin' out of options and wearing thin. Last options are Thunder Fang and Toxic. But they won't work."_

"Give up already, fire mutt? I can't believe this is the pyromaniac of Team Unknown. What a joke."

"S-suck my ba-...Ah, I can't...even get my insults right like this...something's gonna find us, Jaws! Something...or someone..!"

"What?" Violet scoffs and shakes her head. "Do you really think your problems are gonna fall right out of the sk-"

Her boasting is cut off by a Pokemon landing right on top of her head, making them both collapse to the ground in a crumpled mess. The Sandstorm subsides and Inferno falls to the floor, panting lightly, and shaking. "Ooow."

"Inferno!" Yellow arms help the Growlithe up onto his feet as Bolt smirks at him. "You're not about to throw in the towel are you?"

"H-heck naw." He smirks back. "'Sides. You're kind of looking rough yourself."

"You're not looking pretty yourself! Come on, let's send these girls for a loop!" He hands Inferno an Oran Berry, which restores a few of his wounds, but not all. Still, it re-energises him.

"Oh yes!" He bounces next to him, raring to go, pawing at the ground. "C'mon. I owe that Mawile a beating and then some!"

"Speaking my language." Bolt remarks, crouching to all fours, cheeks sparking.

"Get up, we got a battle to win, stupid Absol!" Violet gets up, pushing Blake off of her, whose fur is stood on end from the shocks from Bolt, and the both of them glare at the two Team Soul members, who stand there, smirking back. "And what the heck are you two smirking at?!"

"Oh, nothing." Bolt answers back at her. "Just..that you thought messing with us is a good idea."

"Who do you think you are, rat boy?! You ain't some famous explorer! Like the kind you see coming out of Wigglytuff's Guild!"

Bolt looks to the side and chuckles inwardly, reaching into his neck-scarf. Out he pulls is his old badge from Team Element. "Certified explorer by the master of Wigglytuff's Guild, Treasure Town. Team name: Element."

Violet and Blake both take a step back at the team name drop. Inferno meanwhile, is slightly in awe of his new friend, using his rep amongst explorers to put the frights into a couple of ne'er-do-wells. What were they after again?

"You...you're not him. You can't be...you dis...disappe.."

"Yeah, safe to say you made a mistake messing with Team Soul."

"Shut up!" They both charge up and fire a Hyper Beam at the electric type and fire type.

"Quick Attack evasion, Bolt!"

"Aye!"

They both activate their Quick Attack moves and run out of the way, letting the beams fly past them, and they run at the Steel and Dark types, and Bolt transitions right from Quick Attack into Volt Tackle.

Inferno gets the same idea and transitions into Flame Charge. But something happens to these flames. The output of fire is bigger than the regular Flame Charge. But Inferno, Bolt, Blake nor Violet notice, as the bigger concern is the battle itself.

To add to it, they run closer and closer to each other, and the thunder and the fire start to mix with each other.

And to Blake and Violet, they no longer look like two Pokemon using an attack each. All they look like is a huge swirling ball of fire, with the added ferocity of electricity in the mix. They know they're screwed.

"**Thunderous Blaze!"**

And the attack hits, causing a massive explosion, which causes Blake and Violet to go flying away, into the sky, disappearing with a twinkle in the sky.

The attack dissipates and Bolt and Inferno stand there for a few seconds, panting and wiping sweat from their brow.

"S-so..that happened.." Bolt bluntly states.

"Y-yeah. That was a thing wasn't it?" Inferno asks.

Bolt nods and collapses on his back. "Y-yup. 100% a thing."

Inferno collapses on his side and looks at his friend. "Y...y'know something, Bolt?"

"A-aye..?" He looks at the fire type, raising an eyebrow.

"Sometimes...sometimes we get so caught up in stuff like battling or messin' with each other, I keep on forgetting who you are.."

"Dude, dude...I'm just a Pokemon that got caught up in some weird legend like 10 years ago, and met one of the most amazing Pokemon ever...and became her partner." Bolt laments.

"C-can I ask a question?"

"A-aye..?"

"Everybody makes jokes about me and Titania being a thing...do we really look like a couple when you look at us?"

"Ehhhh...well when I first met you guys, I'd just come back and was just gathering my bearings, taking out some stinky cronies in the process. But the thing is...you guys seem like you have a solid bond. You...kind of remind me of me and Grace."

"We do?" The fire type blushes lightly.

"When me and Grace were still on our team, we backed each other up. We supported each other when times got tough. We always stuck together, never stabbing each other in the back, or ratting each other out. There was a time when that Team Skull lot screwed us over at Apple Woods. The Guildmaster, or rather Chatot, told us to find some Perfect Apples to give to Wigglytuff because Skull snaffled the last of the guild's stock. So this is what happened. We got to Apple Woods and at the end, they appeared and "offered" to help us. Skuntank bashed the tree and a few Perfect Apples came down. Sounds simple right? Yeah. Then what happened is that the team would have probably beaten the living daylights out of us if we fell for it."

"What happened next?"

"They gassed us and made off with the lot."

"Things not go well with the Guildmaster after?"

"We nearly died."

Inferno laughs a little at that. "Woow...I can't wait to meet your friends. They sound amazing."

"They are, Inferno. Anyway, me and Grace, we never made excuses for ourselves to get out of the punishment. We just took it and that's it. But truth be told, knowing me, if we weren't on a team, like if I were going solo, I probably would have made some excuse. But because we were with each other, I felt strong enough to take it internally. Then there was this time just after we got back from the ruined future while Grovyle was grabbing the Time Gears.." He lies his head back on the ground and looks up at the night sky. "Because I was originally from the ruined future, and despite my having amnesia, I wasn't fazed at all. It was weird, but I wasn't scared. Gracie was another story."

"Really...?"

"I heard a few stories about how Gracie was very brave during our future endeavour. But afterwards, she was sat looking out to sea..."

* * *

**(FLASHBACK)**

It's sunset, and Bolt is getting chased to Sharpedo Bluff by a gaggle of Wingull, aiming for a crate of drinks he has in his little paws that looks like it's from Spinda's Cafe. "Hey! Cut it out, I paid for these! Stupid feathered-"

"Those drinks are made of our favourite berry!" One of those Wingull squawks. "We can't find one of them for a good few miles, so this'll have to do!"

"Besides, we don't see many Pichu around and we wanna be the first Wingull flock to take out an electric type!"

"Defenseless little Pichu with his paws full of drinks for his team mates! Sore loser water/flying types." This earns him a peck on the ear. "Hey!" He sends a few hundred volts into the flock, which sends them falling down the cliff. Seeing as he's been on a few intense missions and hasn't had much time to rest, as well as coming back from the future, that attack puts him just about out of breath, and he ends up accidentally falling onto his back. Only he doesn't end up falling onto his back at all.

The electric mouse falls down the steps that lead into the room where they sleep, bouncing down each step with a grunt of pain. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.." The crate was lucky enough to fall at just the right angle so it's just sliding down the steps now.

Eventually, the thundermouse hits the floor in the temporary base with a grunt of pain and a faceplant, and after a pregnant pause, he rolls onto his back and sits up, rubbing his little nose. "Ooh..."

At first the mouse considers just heading straight to bed to sleep off the exhaustion and be ready to fight the next morning. But something catches his attention. A sound. Sniffling? And then, he recognises exactly who is sniffling, and he immediately whirls around, seeing Gracie sat at the edge of the base, looking out of the rock Sharpedo's mouth and to the sunset.

"_What's she crying for? Did she think about her family or something? Did she hurt herself? I'd better check this out."_

"Hey."

The silver Eevee's ears perk up and she whirls around to meet Bolt. "Bolt!" She tries wiping tears from her face. "I-I didn't hear you come in!"

Bolt tilts his head with a look of confusion. "You didn't hear the sound of my face meeting the floor?"

She shakes her head, sniffling. "No..I had my mind on something."

Bolt's look softens up and he walks over to her side, looking out to the sunset. "What about..?"

"A-about...the future."

"The futu-...Ooohhh." Bolt's face comes to a realisation.

Gracie nods, wiping the tears away even more. "It was horrible, Bolt. It was dark, timeless and...I-I don't know what!"

"Yeah...it kinda was.."

"That and..." She sniffles even more. "Dusknoir...he made a fool of all of us. He made a fool of the entire guild, Bolt! Everyone we know, he tricked into finding the only guy who could possibly do something to save the world, and capturing him, taking him back..He made us look like idiots."

Bolt sees her sad face, and a sadness wells up inside of him, as well as a burning fire.

"Gracie..none of us could have predicted this. Dusknoir went around and made a name for himself as a famous explorer, never needing somebody with him. He seemed honest, trustworthy and an all round nice guy. We could have never predicted him being a big bad from the future, wanting to keep it dark." He sighs and smiles. "We'll stop it, though. We'll stop the future from freezing up, and get Treeshroud Forest, and all the other places that have been frozen back to normal. We'll do it together. That's the best part."

Gracie can't help but blush at that last bit, but she giggles as well, looking out.

"We still need to find a way to get to...where was it now? Hidden Land?"

Gracie nods.

"Yeah. That. We still have no clue on how to get there."

"Oh yeah.." She sighs. "What can we do then? Does Grovyle need to do something to get us there?!"

"Graci-"

"This is frustrating now! How do we get there?!" She slumps to the floor, pawing at it.

"...We go to the guild."

"What?!" Gracie jumps to her feet, looking at Bolt incredulously. "Are you mad?"

"Yes, that's why I suggested it." Bolt retorts in a deadpan manner.

"Bolt, think about it. We go to the future because a well known explorer from the future drags us in, and we're there for who knows how long?!" She gives him a mad look. Irony. "Then we show up, spouting stuff about how the great Dusknoir is the bad guy, and the one who so happens to be the good guy is the one who beat up Uxie and Azelf for their Time Gears?!"

"Azelf had the fail safe to be fair, so-"

"I don't care! Bolt...they're gonna think we're the craziest Pokemon in the world if we say all this."

There's a pregnant pause after that sentence, then Bolt gives off a light smirk. "Ah. There's one thing you didn't take into account."

"Oh really? What's that?" She looks at him skeptically.

"Simple. He grabbed us and dragged us into the future. Why would somebody who had good intentions do that?"

Gracie freezes for a few moments, before she slumps to the floor again, pouting endlessly.

"Yeah. So, we got a plan?" Bolt asks with a grin. Oh, that grin of his, she thinks.

"We got a plan." She smiles back. She really needs a break after this is over.

**(FLASHBACK END)**

"Heh. This Gracie sounds like a weirdo." Inferno comments, smirking.

Bolt chuckles at this and sighs. "Yeah, she is pretty weird. It's why I-"

"Y-You two...we aren't done yet.."

Their eyes widen, as they look over and see Violet and Blake still standing and making their way to them.

"Girls, it's over. You lost. Get over it." Inferno snaps.

"Quiet, flea bit!" Violet retorts, gritting her teeth. "We're gonna finish you off here and now!" Her hands come up, as she prepares a killer Sandstorm, when...

"Hold it!"

A Focus Punch connects with Violet's jaw, sending her onto her back. As she struggles to get up, she sees who it is that attacked.

"...Titania."

"You're okay!" Bolt and Inferno chorus as they get up to greet their friend.

She smiles back at her friends. "Hey, boys. Yes, I'm fine..thanks to this Pokemon here."

Jasmine the Vivillon hovers down, giggling. "Hey, more Pokeys!"

The two look over at the Vivillon next to them. "Is she friendly?" Inferno asks. "Because that would be so refreshing."

"She saved my life and healed me. I think she's okay."

"I'm Jasmine!" She greets with an infectious smile.

The three Pokemon look over at the standoff between Mawiles. And everything goes silent. For about 20 seconds. Before Titania's the first to speak.

"Big sister."

And at that moment, Bolt and Inferno's jaws drop. "Sister?!"

"Well well well...if it isn't the black Mareep daughter of the Mawile clan." Violet replies.

"I left that clan, Violet, accept it and get over yourself. I'm my own Pokemon. I'm not conforming to any of that clan's nonsense rules." She smirks. "Looks like you got pretty beat up. My team's great at doing that."

Bolt and Inferno promptly high five.

"Grrrr.." Violet then takes a moment, then smirks. "Too bad. I'm going to have to tell our client that you're not available. What a crying shame."

Titania's face turns to one of confusion. "Who's your client?"

"Ooohhh, you'll know him once you see him. Says he misses your conversations." She cackles. "He'll be happy to see you again once you come to your senses." She gets up and hobbles off. "C'mon, Blake...o-oow..."

The Absol merely huffs and gets up, limping off behind her. "Nice fight. Just don't go losing to something BS."

The group watch as the two troublemakers stagger off. Titania glares at them as they do so, while chills are sent down Bolt and Inferno's spines.

"She's got a mean glare on 'er." Inferno whispers to Jasmine, who nods, giggling at the two's frozen stature.

Titania then looks back at them, a warm smile on her face. "Are you two alright? You look like you've been fighting for your lives.

"Weeell those two were admittedly kinda tough." Bolt admits, yawning.

"Ain't it the truth, sparky." Inferno agrees, sighing. "And we still got our little mascot to rescue as well."

"Thankfully, we don't have to rush. On the way here, we came by a Surskit, who seemed eager for something to do. After telling her our dilemma, she said she knew where the hive was. She then volunteered to go there and cause some ruckus and hassle for the Combee and Vespiquen. The fact that she knows Ice Beam combined with the speed that a Surskit can muster up will be beneficial. She's giving us a chance to recover and think of a plan, Bolt!"

Jasmine's eyes then widen, and in the blink of an eye, she's in front of Bolt's face. "Bolt?! I know that name!"

Bolt looks over at Titania and Inferno, who shrug back at him in just as much confusion as he's feeling, then looks back. "Pretty sure everybody who knows the time fiasco 10 years ago knows that name.."

"No, no, I mean..ugh! My friend knows your name! I write to her a lot! Says she's close to you and hasn't seen you in a while!"

Bolt's eyes widen, and sweat overcomes him. "Who is it? Jasmine, who is your friend?!"

"Her name's Gracie!" She happily shouts, but squeaks when he grabs her.

"You know Grace?!"

* * *

"Uhhh..."

"Hm?"

The Meowth with the western getup has brought the shiny Vulpix inside his little hut where he lives, and has finished warming her up. Now, the little Pokemon is waking up.

"Mmm..Momma..?"

"Huh? Sorry, kid. Your momma isn't here.

"Momma not here...?" She opens her eyes and looks up at him. "W-who are you..?"

"Uhhh...I don't usually tell others my name.." He then sees her giving him sad eyes, then retracts that last sentence. "E-ehh..my name's...Tyson." He rubs the back of his head, grinning nervously.

"Oh...nice name." The Vulpix giggles and looks back up. "Momma usually tells me not to tell my name to a stranger."

"Weeell.." Tyson looks around. "If ya don't tell me, then I might not be able to help you find your momma."

The Vulpix looks thoughtful for the moment, before smiling and looking up. "I'm Blaze!"

"That's a nice name as well." Tyson chuckles, smiling a little more now. This is odd to him. "Do you know the name of your momma? Or is that all you know her as?"

"Uhhh...I think I might know it. I usually hear Aunt Gracie call it her whenever she's washing my fur."

"Oh? What name is that?"

She then smiles wider as she says the name, almost with pride.

"Flarea!"

**CHAPTER END!**

**Yep. Nothing more to say other than...review. Yeah.**


	5. Otherworld! Reunion Showdown!

_**The Quest To Reunite With You**_

_**Chapter 5: Otherworld! Reunion Showdown!**_

**Quick word of advice, if you want to, have Blood Pain from BlazBlue Calamity Trigger at the ready on another tab. When you see a hashtag, press play. It'll fit, trust me.**

**So you know how in the summary it says about crossing over with the games and anime?**

**Well...**

* * *

"'Pokemon are mysterious beings. They have powers that many researchers have failed to comprehend. To this day, nobody has been able to figure out where they come from. But some say there's gateways to a hidden realm, where only Pokemon roam. No humans have ever been known to go through. On that side, Pokemon have their own jobs, their own lives to lead...their own way of living to ours. No two gateways on either side are connected. Going through one will land the Pokemon at a completely random point in the other world if they aren't careful.' So wait, there's meant to be a whole other world exclusively for Pokemon to live in?! No way!"

Walking along a road that has a nice view of the coastline, a figure in a reddish/pinkish coat, blue hair and a white beret reads from a book which she borrowed from a library from her home area. After just missing her old friend by a day, Dawn Berlitz walks out of the general area of Fuchsia City, having walked and cycled all the way from the town of Pallet.

"I can probably see why they had this book in the back room. I really doubt anybody would read this."

A Piplup walks beside her, flippers stretched out as he takes in the fresh sea air. "Pip, Pip-lup!"

"What, you mean you'd believe something like this?! Come on, if there was something like that around, somebody would have found it by now.."

Piplup crosses his flippers and looks away in a huff. "Pip-lup."

She then sighs, and chuckles lowly. "Then again, with what we've seen with Ash, I guess anything could be possible. I mean we saw a whole town get sucked into an alternate dimension while Darkrai went alone against two legendary dragon types." She giggles. "Then we went into the past to stop the creator himself from destroying the present."

"Pip!"

"Then there was the illusion casting Pokemon that made us think three beasts were destroying some city.."

"Lup!"

"Things have been quiet to say the least since we stopped travelling with him."

Piplup nods. "Piplup."

"And to think we missed him going to Kalos! We could have gone with him! Oh, I just love all the things I've heard about it. Lumiose City and Prism Tower, Geosenge Town, Shalour City..Ugh! Oh, and get this. He's not even taken any of his Pokemon with him aside from Pikachu! Again! I swear he's doing this on purpose. He needs to get laid." She then zips up her coat a little more, shuddering. "It's cold this time of year." She looks down at Piplup and grits her teeth, a little peeved. "How can you even stand the cold?!"

"Pip, Piplup!"

"I so wish I could understand you.." She face-palms, shaking her head simultaneously, making Piplup giggle. "The only Pokemon we could understand was Meowth. He was insane, no doubt about that." Piplup nods in agreement. Dawn sighs and takes her small rucksack off of her back, a smile creeping onto her face. "Hey, I know!"

Piplup looks up at his trainer and sees her pulling out a fishing rod.

"Now's the best time to try out the Super Rod we got from the fishing merchant not too far from here last time we were here!"

Piplup gives out a few chirps in a gleeful response.

* * *

Sat on a grass banking, Dawn and Piplup quietly watch for anything to get caught on the rod.

"Ugh, we've been sat here for 10 whole minutes...it's boring!" Dawn shouts, getting increasingly impatient and frustrated. "Honestly, I don't know how those fisherman over there can even stand to sit there this long!"

"It's because this is our living and we're patient!" A random fisher shouts from the distance.

"Nobody asked you!" Dawn shouts back, fists clenched, before getting a few bubbles in her face courtesy of Piplup. "Uhh..thanks, Piplup." She then sits back down, seemingly calm, and does so for about 15 seconds before the rod starts to shake. "Ooh! Piplup, get ready!"

Piplup flexes, puffing out his chest, obviously ready to take on whatever water Pokemon is hooked on the rod. Dawn hooks the rod in a firm grasp, pulling at her full strength. Almost immediately, the hooked Pokemon is pulled out of the water. A Magikarp!

"Hmmm..I could train this thing into a powerful Gyarados! Gonna take a lot of hard work though. Work I'm willing to put in! Piplup, Hydro Pump!"

Piplup leaps in the air after the Magikarp that was pulled out of the water, and opens his beak, a whirlpool of water forming in his mouth. He lets loose the massive jet of water at it, and it hits. Only problem is, it sends the Magikarp soaring into the distance, seemingly towards Vermilion. Out of sight.

Piplup lands and turns around to see Dawn face-palming. "Piplup..."

Her tone makes Piplup slump to the floor. "Luuuuup.."

She then takes her hand away from her face, sees her partner down, and giggles. "Oh, Piplup, it's alright. I should have known my own Pokemon's force. Let's try again!" She thrusts her fist into the air. "There's no point in giving up now!"

Piplup mimics the actions of his trainer and displays the same look of determination as her. "Luuup!"

Her second attempt doesn't go down as well, as, in short, she pulls a Lanturn out, tries hitting it with Pachirisu's Discharge, gets the attack absorbed by Volt Absorb, then all three of them get zapped by Lanturn's own Shock Wave.

Attempt number 2: failure.

After finding a Cheri Berry and a Sitrus Berry for Piplup, they give it one last go.

"Ugh...I hate my luck sometimes." Dawn laments.

"Pip-lup." Her first Pokemon nods, sharing her opinion.

"Reminds me of when we first started travelling. Getting our butts royally handed to us by a bunch of wild Pokemon. Only thing I'm doubting is Pikachu being our next hooked target."

"Lup.."

"Man, I miss the excitement of travelling with him."

"Pip, piplup.."

Just then, her Super Rod jitters.

"Oh?! We got another bite!" She shouts as she tugs at the rod. It doesn't seem to want to budge though, as it starts to pull her down towards the water. "Dangit, dangit, dangit!" She pulls out a red and white ball with a button in the middle. "Mamoswine! Help me pull this thing outta the water!"

Out of the ball bursts a white energy, which in itself forms into the huge Pokemon known as Mamoswine. "Mamooo!" He steps around Dawn and grabs the rod in his huge jaws, and helps her pull the hooked Pokemon out. And finally, they start to make some progress, as Dawn, Mamoswine and Piplup (not wanting to be left out) take a few steps backwards, the rod steadily gripped.

And what comes out of the water? A Tentacool? No. A Goldeen? Nope. A Seaking? We're not even going there.

No, the Pokemon that comes out of the water is a frankly annoyed Dragonite.

"A-A Dragonite?!"

"Pipluup?!"

"Mamooo?!"

The Dragonite looks down upon the three, a dangerously calm aura about her.

"I...think it's mad..." Dawn says out loud to the two Pokemon beside her. Unfortunately, the Dragonite hears as well.

"I'm not an 'it', I'm a she, and my name is Grandine, litle girl!"

Dawn immediately snaps back, pointing at her. "Hey, I'm not a little girl, I'm 16, and I-wait, you can talk?!"

"Of course I can talk, child! I'm not an invalid, you know!" She charges up a Hyper Beam and lets it loose at Dawn, and she cringes as she's about to be hit...only for Mamoswine to roar out in pain, as he takes the hit for her. Safe to say the trainer is shocked and horrified seeing as the powerful attack made a critical hit. After Mamoswine collapses, out for the count, she returns him to his Poke Ball.

"Take a good rest, Mamoswine...and thank you."

Her face then shifts to a serious one, and she takes out two Poke Balls. "Alright, 'Grandine' if you wanna play dirty, then I'll be happy to oblige." She throws them into the air. "Buneary! Typhlosion! Spotlight!"

Hidden in a bush 40 yards or so away, two individuals peek their heads out. One of them with yellow long hair, and the other with short green hair.

"Dragonite sighted, Dr. Jumba."

"_It's Namba, you idiot!"_

* * *

Eating an Oran Berry, Bolt sits the side of a set of back to back benches back in Pokemon Square, moping.

He's just heard that his latest new friend has been in contact with Gracie, and from what he heard, she's rarely cracked a smile. Only once in a while.

He's never felt more of a prick than he does now.

Well aside from when he was vanishing after keeping the fact he was going to from his partner.

"Great...just great, Bolt. You have got some serious explaining to do when you and Gracie get back with each other." He lies back and looks up at the stars shining bright in the sky. "Did you ever look up at the stars during the last 10 years and wonder if I was among them? Cause that'd be a better explanation for you than 'Hey, Gracie, sorry I've not been here, I've been in a place called Hoenn, running around, catching our brethren in tiny little balls!' On that note, Jasmine's pattern really has me wondering about her origins." He then looks around to see that he's sat by himself, making him sweatdrop. "Talking to myself. I really am losing it." He sighs and pulls out one of his badges. The one from his old days in Element. _"This is supposed to represent sticking together as a team, through and through...how can I if I'm all the way here and you're there?"_

Just then, he hears a voice coming from the bench behind him. "Troubled?"

Bolt springs up, and doesn't look back. He's only surprised. "Yeah. I kind of am."

"What's wrong?"

"Eh, just separated from my partner...my friend..."

"Loved one?"

"I-I didn't say that! W-where did you draw that one from?!" His face heats up tremendously, and little sparks of electricity jump out of his cheeks.

"Experience. Plus you're quick to deny it." The stranger answers, sounding amused.

Bolt huffs, crossing his arms, a little peeved. "Yeah, I loved her." And right at that moment, saying those words seem to lift a weight off his shoulders. "I still love her." More weight.

"When you see her again, are you going to tell her?"

"In a heartbeat. But Treasure Town's so far away."

"Oh, she's a part of Wigglytuff's guild is she?"

"Yeah, she is. How'd ya guess?"

"If she was in Treasure Town, she'd either be working for the guild or working on one of the stalls in town."

Bolt chuckles at this stranger. "Fair point, fair point. So, you work there now and just came for a quick vacation?"

"Extended vacation. I had to get out for a while, clear my head."

"Why?"

"Reasons I'd rather not say."

Bolt raises an eyebrow.

"Girl issues."

Bolt then nods, trying not to laugh. "Preaching to the choir, mate."

The two then share a good laugh. Bolt then continues.

"Though, I'm finding my way back anyway." He smiles. "She wants to see me, I wanna see her, and...it's just gonna feel so nice hugging her again." He then stop and blushes really brightly, his cheeks accidentally letting off a spark. "I-I mean...you didn't hear that."

The stranger sits back, holding in some wild laughter. "My lips are sealed...alright, I need to go. Thanks for the talk, Bolt."

The two Pokemon get off their benches and depart in opposite directions. "Take it easy man, nice speaking to you too, whoever you are."

As Bolt sees Titania, Inferno and Jasmine making the way over to him, motioning for him to get a move on, a thought runs through Bolt's mind. _"He's really made me feel better tonight. I wonder who he was? More importantly...how did he know my name?" _He glances over his shoulder to the stranger, and sees a Lucario walking over to a Dewott, who looks like he's chilling and leaning against a tree.

Immediately, the Pikachu's mind goes to work.

A Lucario?

Talking to him like he would an old friend?

Laughing with him?

Extended vacation from the guild?

There's no doubt in Bolt's mind, as his cheeks...no...his whole BODY starts to fizzle with electricity.

"Wait, Bolt, where are you going...?"

Suddenly, his body cloaks itself in electricity, and he runs at the Lucario, teeth gritted, initiating Volt Tackle.

"KAARUUUUU!"

**#**

The Lucario turns around, and his chest is immediately met with the Pikachu slamming into him, head first, with the speed of a freight train, and it sends Karu flying backwards through a narrow path between sets of trees.

"Hey what do you think you're doing you little runt?!" The Dewott angrily asks the livid Pikachu, but is only met with a Focus Punch to the face, which sends him flying back towards the rest of Team Soul. Thankfully, he's caught in mid-air by something.

"I got you!" Jasmine cries after catching him with her Psychic attack.

"O-oowww..."

"What's gotten into Bolt...?" Titania asks out loud.

"I-I don't know, Tee, but he's looking pretty pissed."

Back to the fight, Bolt is charging towards Karu again, but after recovering, Karu is prepared and charges up an Aura Sphere. He fires at Bolt, but he isn't prepared to see Bolt leap up and use Iron Tail on it. The explosion of the Aura Sphere propels Bolt into the air, and on descent, he spins forward as he falls towards him. Karu, surprised at Bolt's tenacity, slams his paws together, and prepares Bone Rush.

The two moves clash, and their eyes meet. Bolt's anger filled brown irises meet Karu's confused red ones.

"You've got some nerve approaching me after what you did!" Bolt roars at him. His cheeks light up, and he quickly launches a point blank Thunderbolt, which engulfs Karu, and sends him skidding back past the Makuhita Dojo, and to his horror, he feels that his feet are teetering at the edge of a cliff.

"W-wait a minute, Bolt...take a minute to calm do-"

His speech is interrupted as Bolt uses Quick Attack to send him off of the cliff, bringing himself along for the fall, causing Team Soul and Jet to shout after them.

"Whoa, what the heck's that mouse's problem?!"

"If that's the same Karu he once had a strong friendship with, to be honest, I don't blame him." Titania bluntly puts, causing Inferno and Jasmine to nod their heads in agreement.

"Why, what did he do to cause the Pikachu to snap?"

"He told us what happened, and if you don't know, then we'll tell you the other side of this." Titania tells him. "Come on, let's go back to the square and let Bolt clear it out of his system.

"T-that's -the- Bolt?!" Jet asks in shock.

Meanwhile, during their fall, Karu grabs Bolt by the tail, and throws him into the side of the cliff, making him cry out in pain and bounce off back to Karu, and he's met by a Blaze Kick to the face, then a Force Palm to the chest.

Bolt reels for a second, then comes back with a spinning Iron Tail to the face, which hits a few times, causing Karu to go into a daze. This lasts for a few seconds, as Karu regains his composure, and seeing that they're nearing a forest, prepares Bone Rush, and promptly bats Bolt into a nearby oak tree, and then flips himself so he lands on his feet. As he does, he winces a little and checks himself over.

"Damn, Bolt. You **are** pretty damn strong."

He then puts up his aura guard, and almost straight away senses Bolt nearby, charging a Thunderbolt. He jumps out of the way, letting it fly past him, and then charges an Aura Sphere on one paw, as Bolt leaps at him, preparing to nail him with an Electro Ball charged on his tail. The two attacks meet, and it causes an explosion fuelled by aura and electrical energy, and it sends them flying back away from each other. Bolt manages to recover and land on his feet, and Karu lands on his own and skids back. The two glare each other down, not flinching.

"You're strong." Bolt remarks.

"So are you." Karu replies. "But let's see how you handle this!" He puts his paws together, and charges up aura energy into them, concentrating.

"So now we're resorting to powerful attacks? This'll be fun!" Bolt grins, and his tail glows, activating Iron Tail. But electricity starts to course through it.

For a few moments both Pokemon stand still, charging their attacks, before Karu's paws glow bright with energy.

"Say hello to my new technique: **Aura...STORM!**"

He thrusts his paws forward, and out of them comes a bright blue huge beam, and it sweeps past the area Bolt is in, soaring into the distance.

At first, it seems as though the attack hit Bolt, and it possibly means it's the end of the match.

Nope.

Bolt had leaped up into the air once again, attack at the ready, and starts to spin forward again. In a hurry, Karu brings Bone Rush back up, and holds it up to block it.

"**Lightning Iron Tail!**"

As soon as his attack meets Karu's they stay at a stalemate...for a few seconds, before Bolt's attack rips right through it, and hits Karu right in the face. The force of it sends his face crashing right into the ground, and Bolt flips backwards a few times before landing gracefully on his feet.

"...Well...that was a battle." Bolt remarks, before seeing Karu stagger to his feet, panting. "You not done yet?" Electricity crackles on his cheeks. "I ain't stopping till I've won."

"You're powerful, Bolt. Real powerful." Karu remarks, catching his breath.

"And you look pooped. Seriously, quit while you still can and save yourself the humiliatio-"

Suddenly, the ground cracks underneath him, and something spinning shoots out hitting Bolt, making him cry out in pain, and send him flying into a tree.

The spinning object stops spinning and lands on the ground to reveal it to be...

"A-a Regirock?!" Karu exclaims, staggering to his feet. As the Regirock lets out a few noises, the Braille markings on his face flashing, it charges up a Hyper Beam, and fires it at Karu.

The Lucario dodges, and fires off an Aura Sphere, which the Regirock only brings up his arms on front of him to block. Karu growls, and runs at Regirock, and uses Force Palm on him, making him skid back. Before Regirock can recover, Bolt's Iron Tail slams him on the side of the head, making him stagger to the side.

"**ZZZZT-REGIROCK!**"

"This guy just came outta nowhere!" Bolt exclaims, his cheeks crackling to life. "And hits like a rock..."

"Well he **is** a Regirock after all." Karu retorts flatly.

"I...I knew that." Bolt sheepishly replies.

"Ugh...this bickering is getting us nowhere! We got a legendary Pokemon attacking us and we need to strike back at it! Leave all the fuss for later. Rodent."

"Jackal features."

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

Karu just facepaws. "Bolt. Get serious, and actually fight. We need to double team him."

Bolt sighs, and grins, cheeks crackling. "Right." He zips at Regirock and hardens his tail for an Iron Tail attack, but Regirock just drills underground, and Bolt screeches to a halt, looking around. "Crap! Where did that colossal rock mound go?!"

"Bolt! Jump!"

Not questioning anybody right now, he leaps into the air, as Regirock chases him, bursting out of the ground. Bolt manages to avoid him.

"Now strike!"

Bolt somersaults forward and slams Iron Tail into Regirock, sending him down into the ground, and the thundermouse lands next to Karu, panting a little. "Whew...thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, he's still up and kicking!"

"Huh?" He looks over at Regirock who gets back up, dusting himself off. "**ZZZTREGI!**"

"Well now that he knows that you can sense his every move, I wonder how he's gonna go about fighting us now?" Bolt wonders out loud.

Karu simply runs at Regirock, his paw glowing for Force Palm. He thrusts it towards Regirock's face...but to his shock, Regirock manages to duck underneath it.

"Whoa, that was a pretty swift dodge.." Bolt remarks. But then his eyes widen as he notices that in the split second after Karu's attack missed, Regirock's...hand...paw...rock hand...battering ram thing starts glowing. "Karu, watch it, he's armed!"

It's too late, as Regirock slams Karu in the chest with Superpower, and being a super effective move against Karu's duel typing, it deals quite a lot of damage.

Karu goes flying, backwards, and levels a tree with his being, then lands on his back, clinging to consciousness.

"Karu!" Bolt watches in horror as it happens, before getting hit with a Hyper Beam, which sends him rolling across the ground, and eventually comes to a halt, struggling to move, his entire being aching. "U-Uggghh...my everything hurts...this thing is beastly."

Suddenly, his eyes widen, as Regirock presents a White Herb.

"Oh...crap. He just used Superpower and now he's gonna do it again by the looks of it."

Regirock appears to eat the herb, despite not having any visible mouth. And suddenly he looks to have a bit more energy, as he flexes his rock arms.

"Alright, Rocky, don't rub it in."

"**ZZZZZTREGIROCK!**" He then slowly saunters towards Bolt, his arm glowing, preparing another Superpower.

Bolt growls, and gets to his feet, clenching his fist. "Come on...I beat Dialga, I can beat this guy." His fist glows as he sends his last ounce of power to his fist, ready for Focus Punch. He then runs at Regirock, yelling out.

Karu opens his eyes slowly, and looks over at his friend running at Regirock. He can't help but smirk. "G-go, Bolt.."

Regirock sees Bolt running at him and decides to stand his ground. And it all goes in slow motion. Bolt leaps up to Regirock and pulls back his Focus Punch, as does Regirock with with his Superpower.

The two attacks connect, causing an explosion, which can be seen from the Makuhita Dojo. Said Makuhita looks on, and tilts his head. "Who's fighting? I'm tryna sleep here." He walks back into the Dojo, mumbling like an old man.

After the dust cloud clears, it looks like Regirock has only slid back. Bolt? He's on the floor, on his back, all out of energy and battered and bruised.

Regirock looks down at Bolt, and walks over to him, chirping at him, as the mouse weakly looks up at him, panting.

Now right next to Bolt, Regirock lifts up his foot, and prepares to stomp down on him.

"Not another step, rocky."

Regirock stops, and looks behind him.

"**R-REGI-ZZT?**"

Karu stands there, pissed at him. Only he's...taller. His paws and feet have turned crimson, another set of spikes have come out of the back of his paws, some have sprouted from his shoulders and his back, his aura sensing appendages have become longer and seem to be blowing in a non-existent wind, and the cream fur around his torso has become longer.

Bolt looks at his friend, amazed. "K-karu..."

"Were you about to kill my friend? I'm sorry, I never gave you permission to."

Sensing this to be a new threat, Regirock fires off another Hyper Beam, directly towards Karu, but right at the last second...

"**EXTREME SPEED!**"

..He runs out of the way, letting the area where he once stood explode from the beam.

"**R-REGI?!**"

Coming to a halt in front of him, duel wielding two bone rushes, he starts to relentless beat Regirock with them, growling, each super effective hit weakening the legendary. Dispelling the Bone Rushes, he uses Bullet Punch, and lands rapid hits on Regirock, again, each one a super effective blow. He then uppercuts the legend into the sky, and then charges up one more Aura Sphere.

"Time to end this!" He shoots it into the air, and when it makes impact with Regirock, there's an explosion that's seen for miles. The rock type golem soars into the sky, with a **ping! **And right at that moment...it starts to rain.

"Well...that's all she wrote." He looks over at Bolt, and snatches him up, seeing some sort of foliage covered cave in the bottom of the cliff face. He makes a run for it, to take cover from the rain, which seems to be getting heavier and heavier.

Eventually, he makes it in, and he stops running, panting a little bit heavier. "Huh...heh...phew..." He looks down at the fallen electric type in his arms. He knows exactly why Bolt suddenly attacked him. And honestly? He doesn't blame him.

"Bolt. I'm sorry I left them behind."

His senses then pick up some strange energy from further into the cave. He looks forward, and can see a green glow. Curiosity overcoming him, he runs deeper into the cave to see what it's all about.

* * *

"This Dragonite is tough, I'll give her that." Dawn states with a smirk. "So many great attacks...I can feel it. The crowd cheering my name as my newly acquired Dragonite finishes her Ice Beam/Fire Punch combo! I'll be the talk of the Co-ordinator world before you know it!"

By now, the bluenette is lost in a world of her own, as the slightly exhausted Grandine is looking at her annoyed. "Are you done squeaking? We're in a battle, you know!"

Dawn opens her eyes, glaring. "Don't interrupt my daydreams! Buneary! Ice Beam!"

"Buuuneary!" The rabbit fires her move at Grandine, and she tries to dodge, but her wing gets frozen, and she crashes into the ground, even more exhausted, as that last move was super effective.

"Alright!" Dawn jumps into the air, pumping up her fist. "Pokemon all mine!...Wait a minute I need to catch her first..." She reaches into her back, and pulls out an empty shrunken Poke Ball. She presses the button, enlarging it, and smirks, pulling her arm back. "Poke Ball, g-"

Before she can do anything else, a net flies out of nowhere, and entraps Grandine, making the Dragonite gasp. "What is this?!"

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"Huh?" Dawn turns towards the source of the voices. Out of the darkness of some woods, two individuals make themselves known. They have black uniforms on with red R's on their chests.

"To infect the world with devastation!"

"To blight all people in every nation!"

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"

"Cassidy!"

"And Butch!"

"We're Team Rocket, circling the Earth all day and night!"

"Surrender now or you will surely lose the fight!"

A burst of light shoots out from Butch's pocket, and reveals itself to be a Shuckle.

"Shuckle-uckle!"

Dawn facepalms and sighs. "Not you clowns again...don't you ever have anything better to do with your time, Cassidy and Biff?"

Butch's eyes widen and his face contorts with anger. "It's Butch, can't you people ever get it right?!"

"Cool it, Beach." Cassidy quips, smirking, then pulling up her arm, she speaks into a wrist communicator. "Dragonite restrained. Standing by for pick up."

"Wait, what're you going to do?!" Dawn asks them, incredulously.

"We're capturing it, duh!" Butch answers, a sneer on his face as he speaks. "'Cause that's what Team Rocket does. We capture powerful Pokemon, and bring them over to our side."

Dawn then dons a smug smirk. "Yet they fail to capture one Pikachu, don't they?"

"That's Jessie and James, not us!" Cassidy retorts defensively, before regaining her composure. From the clouds, suddenly, a huge helicopter with a red R on the sides descends above the fallen Dragonite. "Whatever, we got what we came for." A hatch on the bottom of the helicopter opens up, and a cage lowers itself on top of her. The two humans and the Shuckle walk over to the cage, and properly close it up, including the base of said cage. They then climb up onto the top of the cage, and turn to Dawn.

"You'll be stopped."

All humans turn to look at Grandine. She's still got some fight left in her. She pulls out some weird badge of pink and gold.

"I know it. Bunch of petty thugs."

"Yeah yeah, keep talkin' dragon girl. Not like it'll get you anywhere with us."

Grandine can only lie back and smirk, as the cage concealing her rises up back into the helicopter, Butch and Cassidy with them. "You know, you did us a good service, twerp!" Cassidy shouts down. "Wore her down so we could get her! Thanks!"

The two thugs laugh as they vanish into the copter. Said copter then takes off, vanishing above the clouds.

Dawn can only helplessly watch it all happen, as most likely, if she sent up Togekiss, they'd have some other flying type Pokemon on there to fend her off. She drops to the floor, on her knees, and Piplup, Typhlosion and Buneary run over to her to see if she's okay.

"Pip-piplup!"

"Bun! Buneary!"

"Ssiooon!"

"N-no...I couldn't save her." A few tear drops fall from the girl's eyes, as she tries not to cry.

"Buuun.."

"Luup.."

"Phloo.."

"T-there's gotta be a way to find her. I've gotta help her!" She gets to her feet, clenching her fist. "I will find a way to save Grandine! Cause that's what Ash'd do, right?" Her three Pokemon grin and agree with her. "But where to st-huh?"

Her brief moment of bravado is interrpted, as the rustling of some bushes from the entrance to the woods area resounds. They all turn their heads, and are surprised at what they see. A strange looking Lucario staggers towards them, carrying a Pikachu under his arm, wearing a blue neckscarf.

But the fact that the Lucario looks strange isn't what bothers Dawn the most.

It's the condition of both of the Pokemon. They both look like they've survived a brutal battle.

"Oh my gosh!" She and her Pokemon run over to them. "Typhlosion, help support Lucario!"

The fire type nods, and approaches the Lucario. At first the Lucario stops, and flashes them all a glare that would incinerate them if looks could kill. But a few seconds later, he visibly calms, and lets Typhlosion support him, keeping him up. "U-Uhh..."

"Huh?" Dawn looks at him, eyes wide. "Are you alright?"

"...B-barely..."

"Y-you can talk?! Just like..."

"T-the Dragonite...who just got taken away...G-gran...Grandine..."

"You know her...?!"

"S-she...g-guild...F..Flarea..."

Dawn recognises that he's about to pass out, so she quickly grabs the injured Pikachu in her arms, and watches, as the Lucario is enveloped in an orange glow, and he reverts to his regular state, passed out.

"We gotta get them to a Pokemon Centre quick! Typhlosion, carry Lucario on your back!"

"Phloo!" He hoists the steel/fighting type onto his back and the group proceed to hurry their way to the nearest Pokemon Centre in Vermilion.

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

**Phew! That was intense...so yeah, I did say on the summary that it was gonna crossover with the anime or games in some way, and here you go.**

**So, tell me what you think of the way this story's going and I'll see you next chapter!**

**Ciao for now!**


	6. Friends Can Be Found Anywhere!

_**The Quest To Reunite With You!**_

_**Chapter 6: Friends Can Be Found Anywhere!**_

**This was originally going to be a shorter chapter, buuuut I ended up going on and on again xD**

**Sooo here it is!**

* * *

"And it wasn't telepathy? They actually spoke?!" A tanned boy asks Dawn in amazement through the video phone.

"Yeah! Honestly, I was a little cautious myself, because well...you know perfectly well about the talking cat Pokemon we both know and what he gets up to."

"Yeah, true..."

She then sighs and changes the subject. "Brock, when Ash told me you were training to be a Pokemon Doctor, I wasn't that surprised. When we were journeying through Sinnoh, I was impressed by your medical skills."

The boy named Brock blushes and rubs the back of his head. "Awwww. Thanks, Dawn. By the way, Dawn, my Mom loves Buneary's photos. She's actually pinned them up on a few walls of the house."

Dawn laughs a little. "Still striving to make the place look cute, huh?"

"Yeah, that's my Mom." He laughs along with her. "So when **was** the last time you saw Ash?"

"Well, it was in Unova. I was told by Cynthia that Ash was there and I decided to pay him a surprise visit. He was travelling with two people called Iris and Cilan. One was a Dragon Master in training, and the other was a Pokemon Connoisseur."

"A Pokemon Connoisseur, huh? I met one a few months ago in Johto. I never asked his name, but he had green hair and dressed like a waiter."

Dawn holds back a laugh. "Uhhh, Brock?"

He then tilts his head. "What?"

"That was Cilan."

His jaw drops. "The same that travelled with Ash?!"

She giggles at his reaction. "Yep!"

"Dangit...We could've traded stories and recipes and-"

"Asked whether Ash changes his underwear everyday to keep his Mom's mind at rest?" She asks with a small smirk.

Brock stays silent for a few seconds before he grins. "Of course **you'd** mention Ash's underwear, Dawn."

She then breaks out into a small blush before looking away. "I-I was just making conversation..." She then looks back at the screen. "So how long have you got for vacation?"

"Uhhh...about a few months, why?" He asks her, eyebrow raised.

"Because..I kind of need your help."

"With what?"

"Team Rocket."

"Those three clowns?! I thought they'd be chasing Ash still." He puts a hand to his chin.

"No, not those three! It's Cassidy and Bosch."

"Uhh, I think it's Butch." He replies with a snigger.

"Whatever!" She waves the mistake off. "Point is, they kidnapped an innocent Dragonite I was trying to catch yesterday and I need to go get her back."

"Her? How did you know it was a female?"

"Because she could talk like these two I found last night. And by the sounds of it, she was their friend." She shakes her head. "I'm not going to leave them to it when I can do something to help. It's not what Ash would do." She looks at Brock with pleading eyes. "Please, Brock. Help me get her back."

Brock thinks for a moment before smiling. "Where are you staying?"

"I'm in Vermilion Cit-" Just then, she catches notice of the TV on the wall. "Hush!" She watches intently.

"_This is the scene above Aquacorde Town in Kalos. Citizens are looking up at a huge helicopter that's hovering low, probably looking for a place to land. Judging by the red R on the side, it seems to belong to notorious Kanto criminal organisation, Team Rocket. We don't know the real intent of the pilot or the passengers, but bring you more details as they come."_

"That's the same helicopter that her captors flew off in! And they're in Kalos!"

"The same region Ash is travelling in right now. I'll meet you there in a few days and we'll take the first ferry to Kalos. Just be patient, alright?"

"Why not take the Diglett Cave here?"

"It's been closed off, so that they can preserve it. Stop it from caving in. So I have to go the long way round. Hang tight, alright? I'll be there as soon as I possibly can. We'll get that Dragonite back."

"Thanks, Brock." She smiles in appreciation. "See you soon."

"Bye, Dawn." He cuts the line.

Dawn has a determined looking smile on her face as she pumps up her fist, waking up the sleeping Piplup. "We're gonna get that Dragonite back for sure!"

"Luuupp..."

* * *

Meanwhile, Bolt slowly stirs and groans, and his eyes flutter open as he groans.

"Ugggh..where am I?"

He slowly sits up and shakes his head, blinking his eyes, before looking around. "Wait...why does this look familiar?"

"Oh, you're awake."

Bolt jumps and looks over and sees Karu, who's looking out of the window, arms crossed.

"It's about time, I've been waiting for two hours."

Bolt huffs and looks forward. "Sorry, but my injuries had me down."

The two share a silence before Karu starts again.

"I don't blame you."

Bolt looks at him again. "Huh? What do you-"

"When you attacked me in Pokemon Square. I don't blame you. At all."

Bolt thinks for a moment, before lying his head back on the pillow. "You shouldn't have come out to look for me. It wouldn't have made any difference at all."

"I needed to make sure. I needed to check all the options weren't completely used up."

He facepaws. "I was from an erased future, Karu-"

The Lucario turns to him and glares. "Then why are you here, now?! Why have you been spending the last 10 years in a place called Hoenn?!"

This makes Bolt pause for a few moments before he brings the pillow over his head. "I don't know." He muffles. "Dialga, maybe? Gardevoir never mentioned that part."

Karu lets up and sighs. "Whatever it was...it's good to have you back."

Bolt takes the pillow from his face and glares at him. "Thanks, but you can guess who's gonna be saying that through teary eyes, right?"

"...Yes, I know, I know. But you'll be getting the same treatment from Gracie when we finally get back there."

"I doubt it'll be back at the guild when we reunite. They're out looking for **us**...Plus you had the choice to stay. I couldn't do jack."

Karu sighs and rolls his eyes, looking out of the window again. "This place is all too familiar for comfort."

"Hm?" He gets up and hops off of the bed, bounds over and hops onto the window sill. "Hey...hey check it out it's Vermilion!"

"Vermilion? How do you-"

"I didn't spend the last 10 years doing absolutely nothing, genius." He chuckles. "I was travelling as well. Hoenn, Johto, Kanto, Sinnoh, Unova...was gonna go visit Kalos, but then this happened."

"So..you pretty much know your way around the human world?"

"Preetty much." He looks back at Karu. "Who brought you here anyway? Cause before I passed out, you might have transformed somehow, but dude...you were banged up, and you trashed that Regirock and made it your bitch. You couldn't have been able to stand for much longer so-"

"Oh, you two!" A female voice interrupts. They turns their heads to see a young woman dressed in a nurse uniform. "So it's true what she said. You two **can** talk." She giggles. "I've seen that before, so I'm not all that freaked out."

The two Pokemon breathe a sigh of relief.

"Glad she cleared that one up." Karu remarks.

"Who?" Bolt asks.

"A blue haired girl. She brought you in and told me what happened."

"Blue haired girl...?" Bolt asks again.

"I encountered her just before I passed out."

"And she's still here, worried for the both of you. Do you want to go and let her know she's alright?"

The two Pokemon nod silently, and walk past her. As they walk down the hallway to the main foyer, Karu looks down at the Pikachu. "So are we okay?"

Bolt snaps out of his thoughts and looks up at Karu. "Uh? Yeah yeah...we're good...just don't go leaving Flarea behind and I won't zap you again."

Karu chuckles and nods. "Yeah, alright. And next time you know you're gonna disappear like before, tell Gracie before it happens instead of dropping it on her like last minute."

Bolt sighs and looks forward, guilt overtaking him.

"...She loved you ya know."

"I know that. I heard."

"You gonna act on it when you find her again?"

"**If** I find her again I will. I mean wherever we are, we might not get back to Ambera*!"

Karu sighs. "I'm sorry I brought us here. I thought-"

"Just..stop apologising, Karu. I thought it'd be satisfying hearing you say sorry but now it's getting rather monotonous. If you're going to say it again, save it for Flarea. It's her you need to say it to."

Karu stays silent for a few seconds before looking forward as well. "Looks like we both have a lot to apologise for."

"Yeah. I guess so." Bolt replies. "Let's just get it out of our minds until we come to that bridge, okay? Let's focus on whatever we have to do."

Karu nods in agreement. _"I should tell him about Grandine. But first we should talk with this blue haired girl."_

* * *

It has taken them a few minutes for the two to explain their whole story, right up until their current predicament. All the while, Dawn has been sitting there with a bewildered look on her face.

"_A Pokemon that used to be a human? Is that even possible?" _"So..Bolt, was it?" He nods, sat on the table, going to town on a bottle of tomato ketchup. "You said you're on the search for a certain...Glaceon, right?" Bolt nods again. "What makes you think she'll have you back after this? I know as a girl, I'd be pretty pissed off if you left me behind for a whole decade."

Bolt puts down the bottle of ketchup, and stands up, folding his arms. "Well, blue, 1. What happened wasn't my fault, and it's taken quite a bit of time to realise that, and 2. She's out there searching for me." He smirks after finishing.

"You're very sure of yourself, aren't you?" She narrows her eyes slightly, giving him an unsure look, to which Bolt snickers.

"Sure as Flarea's gonna corner Karu, and either burn his tail off, or pin him down and go crazy." This statement makes Karu's blue face turn beet red.

"B-bolt!"

The Pikachu and Piplup burst out laughing at the poor Lucario, who's trying to hide his face.

"Come on, man, I'm only joking! Geez, your sense of humour hasn't evolved with you, has it?" He blinks a few times, tilting his head. "Then again, I might be joking, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong..."

"Bolt...I get it, stop. I owe Flarea a lot. But don't go on about my private life in front of someone we just met. I meet she doesn't need to know that we consummated our love the night before the anniv-" He immediately stops and curls up in a corner, as Bolt, Dawn and Piplup cry with laughter. "Ugggh. I need to stop letting my mouth slip."

"There's no answer to that." Bolt retorts, wiping a tear from his eye. He hops off of the table, and pats his larger friend's back. "Awww, don't worry. We all say things we don't mean."

"Awwwww, a Pikachu!"

Suddenly, the Pikachu is lifted up by small brown haired girl, and petted gently. Karu turns around, and watches the whole thing happen.

"_W-whoa...what happened, I wasn't expecting thi-OOhh...this actually feels pretty good." _Bolt laments in his mind. Eventually, he relaxes completely, and his ears droop, as he makes a ":3" face. Karu meanwhile, is struggling to hold in his laughter, at the new state of his friend, and Dawn is giggling at the Pikachu being petted by a small girl.

"_I just wanna lie here...and fall asleep...worry about other things tomorrow.." _He even lets out a tiny little squeaky "Chaaa~".

Karu just edges away from the two, and rejoins Dawn, not able to stop watching. He's seen his friend and soul brother in all sorts of situations, and he's never seen anything quite like this.

"Is he okay...?" He asks Dawn.

"He's fine. I'm willing to bet it's his first time being petted."

"Most likely. Unless Gracie did that sort of thing back then."

"Awwww...has a dirty mind, but he's so cute..." She hears Karu 'hmph' and smirks, looking slyly at him. "You jealous, Karu?"

"Hmph. Me? Jealous of that? I have no idea what you're talking abou-" He's interrupted by Dawn scratching him behind the ear, and he falls completely helpless under her touch. "Ohhhh...okay...you win...I yield."

"Ehehehe." She then looks over and sees Bolt starting to get uncomfortable now, the little girl starting to get a little rough with her actions. A sight she catches makes her scared for the girl. Bolt's cheeks starting to spark and crackle. She immediately stops scratching Karu's ear, and rushes over to her.

"Uhm, excuse me?"

The girl looks over at Dawn. "Uhm. Hello!" Dawn looks over at Bolt, sighing in relief. "Oh! Is this Pikachu yours?"

"Ummm...yeah, he is! Also...he was starting to get a little uncomfortable.."

She looks at the Pikachu in her arms, a little bit of guilt overcoming her. "Awwww...I'm sorry, little one." Bolt merely shrugs, completely over it now.

"Also, when a Pikachu becomes uncomfortable, they become agitated.."

"What happens when a Pikachu becomes agitated?" The girl asks with a curious look on her face.

"Let's just say that..my hair's been in more frazzled states than it's allowed to." _"Though the Pikachu who did them to me wasn't this one." _She chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh.." A look of realisation appears on her face. "Oh! He zapped you didn't he?"

She nods, sweatdropping. "Yeah. He also destroyed my bike." She shoots him a fake glare, to which he squees at her.

"Okay! Wait, are you Dawn Berlitz? The Co-ordinator?" The girl asks.

This takes Dawn by surprise, and she blinks at her. "Yeah. That's me!"

There's a pause before the girl's eyes light up. "Wow, I've finally met you! I've been following your contests, and I love your Buneary and Togekiss!" From a distance, Piplup can be heard sulking. "Is that Lucario yours as well?" She asks, pointing to the jackel-like Pokemon. Karu merely thinks for a moment before nodding, seemingly giving Dawn the go-ahead to say yes.

"Yes, he is. And yes, Pikachu and Lucario are going to be used in contests in the future. Juuust not this season."

"Oh well!" She giggles, and pets Bolt once more before putting him onto the table, allowing him to fix his fur. "I can't wait until that day comes! And the scarf you put onto Pikachu makes him look so cute, yet so awesome!" Bolt tugs at his neck-scarf before letting out a small chuckle. "I need to go anyway, Mom's waiting for me! But first, Dawn, can I have your autograph?" She pulls out a photo of Dawn in the Wallace Cup, looking like it was taken by the press while she and Piplup were battling against May and her Glaceon.

Dawn smiles warmly before taking the photo. "Sure! Who does this go out to?"

"Cana!" The girl happily replies.

"Oookay!" She grabs a marker pen from her bag, and takes the cap off. "'To Cana...Follow your own path, and determine your own destiny...Love, Dawn..'" The bluenette reattaches the pen cap and hands the photo back to Cana. "Here you go, Cana."

"Thank you!" She squees and hugs the photo to her chest, then walks over and hugs Dawn, who happily returns it.

"No problem, Cana..." She replies with her smile not leaving her face.

As soon as the little girl leaves with her mother, Dawn, Bolt and Karu all breathe a sigh of relief.

"That was strange..." Bolt comments, sitting down.

"Wasn't it just, 'little one'?" Karu retorts with a smirk, before receiving a small zap from Thunder Wave. "Hey..!"

"Never call me that again, blue boy."

"How was it, getting petted like that, though? Seriously." Karu asks him, curiosity overtaking him.

"It was a thing...I don't know how to explain it to be quite frank. It was very, very..." Bolt trails off, unable to find the perfect word for it.

"Relaxing?"

"Amazing?"

"Piplup?"

"All of the above. I wouldn't mind that again, to be perfectly honest." He answers with a bit of a dreamy smile. Karu can't resist a bit of a jab.

"You'll get all of that and more when you and Gracie reunite."

"Yyyeaa-I mean!-Shut it!" Bolt snaps out of his trance with his face covered in a huge beet red blush. Karu loses it and falls to his knees, laughing hard, Dawn losing herself in giggles as well. "I hate you both!"

* * *

"Violet, when are you going to just speak up already?"

"..."

"Violet, please don't be going all emo on me!"

"So says the Dark type!"

"Oh, that got you talking again, didn't it?"

Blake and Violet, the two defeated Pokemon sit in Spinda's Cafe, drinking their sorrows away, the bruises from their defeat two nights ago still showing. As Pokemon give them weird looks, Violet merely gives them a death glare back, shutting them up.

"Look, just don't start on me today, okay?" Violet asks, nearly faceplanting on the table.

"Though...you always were the better actress than me, Violet."

"You held up pretty well yourself. Besides, I **was** taught at a young age how to act in a tough situation."

Blake chuckles. "Almost literally."

"Yeah."

"You especially fooled your own little sister into thinking you still hated her guts."

The shiny Mawile lifts her head up and looks at her friend/partner.

"...I can't let her know, Blake."

"You went into working alongside Team Rocket hating her guts, so what changed?"

Violet leans back in her seat. "I broke into the Team Rocket archives one night when I was bored."

"The archives? You mean with all the CCTV and stuff?" Violet nods.

"I decided to just take a break, watch some recorded shit and just have a night to myself without a care."

"Sounds like it was set to be one heck of a night."

"It was going to be, but this one tape I came across, just made me fucking hate Giovanni's guts more."

Blake leans forward, sensing some tension from the Mawile. "Go ooon?"

"So it was a usual night in the lab, quiet, not much happening...that's until some grunts came in with one of those Pokeball things."

"Right...?"

"They opened it up, and there was a Mawile, panting and twitching. She looked badly beaten and bruised, like they'd let the Three Musketeers run riot on her."

"Oooh.." Blake is already starting to connect dots, but needs more confirmation. "What happened next?"

"They were talking about experimenting on her. Wanted to test if 'it' worked. I was like 'If **what** worked?'. They already had me hooked, and I was wondering what they'd do to her...but then the voice of the Mawile spoke up, and she sounded pained. Helpless. She'd been crying, and she was out of energy, that much was obvious. But there was more to the voice...it was my little sister's voice. And it was then I realised something."

"What was it?" Blake asks, but then she sees Violet tense up even more. "Violet, what was it?"

Violet almost seems like she doesn't want to answer. In fact, she just shrinks back into her seat.

"Team Rocket weren't behind the beatings.."

Blake tilts her head, obviously confused. "How would you know...?"

"Because I was."

Blake's eyes widen, as she looks on at Violet, who seems to almost be tearing up.

"Violet, please don't start crying...I don't like seeing you cry."

Violet claps her hands onto her face, snapping her out of it for now.

"Sorry. Alright. Lemme explain. Me and her...we had the worst argument ever. Believe it or not, we actually were pretty tight when we were younger. I protected her, she protected me if I were bullied because of my colouring. Yeah, that actually happened."

"I can probably imagine. Keep going?"

"Anyway, I was 13, she was 9. We also had an even younger sister at 7. Sierra her name was. We were out exploring one day, and she wanted to go home early. But I needed to fetch a few berried for dinner, so Titania took her home. It took me a few hours to grab the berries and get home, thanks to a horde of Ursaring wanting some. Thankfully, I managed to escape with 3 of them."

"3? What about your mother?"

"She wasn't around any more..Anyway, I came back to our little hut, where we lived at the time...but it was burnt down."

"B-burnt down?! Sweet Arceus! What happened?!"

"I don't know...but what I saw, was a bruised up Titania, managing to stand, but only just. But...not Sierra."

"What happened to Sierra...?" Blake asks, probably already knowing the answer.

"Covered in burn and bite marks. Dead." Violet puts bluntly.

"Dead...?!"

"Yeah, dead! I have a deceased younger sister and I wasn't there to protect her big fucking whoo...Shit, sorry, sorry..."

"No, no, it's okay...Go on, if you want to."

Violet takes a few deep breaths before carrying on.

"I was shocked, I was horrified. I was ready to lash out at anything I thought could have done it to her. She was burnt, bitten, and lifeless...so we asked a group of local Growlithe to help her give a proper burial."

"Aaand..?"

"With nowhere else to go, me and Titania went off to travel and find ourselves...make Sierra proud while she watched us, wherever she is now. Pfft. Didn't last two hours. We'd just found a new temporary base, and she fought off a Breloom for it. But there was a certain move she reminded me she knew."

"And that was?"

"Fire Fang."

"You're not saying.."

"I thought...I thought it was her. I jumped to that conclusion and just lost it. I grabbed a Violent Seed, ate it, and next thing I know, I'm stood over a battered little sister, and I'm exhausted of energy. I placed her where somebody could find her, and just ran. My mind was messed up, and at the time, I didn't know, nor did I care where I was gonna end up. She was the middle child, the black Mareep, as I said. She was always the one feeling left out and ignored because of it. My guess while I was making my way into the unknown is that she'd suddenly snapped and make herself the younger one again the hard way.."

"Back up a second. You said you saw a recording. How did that alone change your view of her?"

"You didn't hear her yells. Her cries. They didn't put her under while they worked on her. They kept her awake and made her feel the whole thing. And as her older sister, I could always tell when she was hiding something. When her voice hid something more. When she was screaming, those screams were those of someone who'd experienced all kinds of loss recently. Not only loss of family, but loss of truth. Guidance. All mixed together with anger, sadness...and betrayal."

"What did you do?"

"I continued to watch. They had another in there. A little Riolu. He gritted his teeth and just took the punishment, only whimpering. All this just because he wanted Pokemon that could Mega Evolve without the need of the bond of trainers."

"Mega Evolve...? Like the lady in the bright white dress and her Gardevoir friend that tried to capture you?"

"Yeah. That."

"What happened afterwards?"

"Well, everything was going as planned for them, y'know, the Riolu getting experimented...or 'upgraded' as Giovanni put it. Then, one of the scientists ran into the room. 'The Mawile is out of control' he shouted. That was followed by a huge explosion in the other room, and the door was burst open. I'd never seen my little sis look so..."

"Sooooo...?"

"So..majestic."

"What?!"

"She stood there, so calm. So stoic. Yet, there was an untold amount of fury in her eyes. She was also taller, and had an extra set of jaw horns, and it looked like there were ribbons flowing off of various parts of her body. And she did something I couldn't have been more proud of her for doing. She used Fairy Wind, an attack that I'd been teaching her for so long, without any trouble, and knocked out those insane scientists. She plucked the Riolu from the lab table, and ran out."

"Wow...Violet.." She's never seen the shiny Pokemon act this way before.

"I looked through for a few more tapes, and found a few showing the breakout. She wrecked her way through some grunts and their Pokemon while holding the Riolu, and never batted an eyelid. Even after the beating I gave her.."

Blake, sensing Violet's about to fall victim to tears, gets out of her seat and walks over to her. She wraps one of her forelegs around the Mawile and pulls her close to herself, and the two fall silent, sharing a rare moment of close friendship. The Absol looks around and sees the Pokemon in the cafe staring again.

"Will you mind your own businesses, we're trying to have a moment here!"

* * *

**Finally, got it done! Sorry about the wait xD Soo, if you will, leave a review and tell me what you thought. And don't hold back, as the Chemical Brothers would say.**

**Damnit, now Imma have to go and listen to it.**

**Bye all! See you next chapter!**


	7. Imprisoned

**So I've decided that this story is gonna be episodic and comprised of 3 episodes. The Return was the first one, and this one is the second. Which means Bolt and Gracie reuniting and rejoicing isn't the be all, end all of the story. **

**So with that, here's the new chapter!**

* * *

"They just disappeared?!" Titania shouts at Jasmine, who recoils from the voice.

"That's what I said! I checked down there, and I couldn't see them at all!"

Titania, Inferno, Jasmine and Jet. The four Pokemon have been worrying, no panicking all night and all morning since Bolt snapped and sent him and Karu hurtling off of the cliff.

Seeing Regirock blasting off into the sky did not help things one bit.

"Ugh...typical. Just TYPICAL!" Titania shouts, kicking the job request board.

"Yo, I'm back!" Inferno shouts, running out of the Pelipper Post Office. "They were happy to send out a message to all the Exploration and Rescue teams scattered around the continent. They've even said they'd give the Wigglytuff Guild a heads up."

Titania sighs in relief, sitting against the previously abused request board.

"They can't have gotten far, right?" Jet asks, tilting his head.

"I dunno, Jet." Inferno pipes in. "Bolt seemed preeetty pissed off to the max, and that kind of tends to take things above and beyond."

"You aren't. Helping. Inferno." Titania glares at the fire type coldly. Inferno doesn't pay much mind to it, seemingly used to it.

"Just sayin'."

"Guys?" Jasmine calls them. "I think I know where they might have gone." Seeing that she has their attention, she continues. "You guys know what a Deltagate is, right?"

"A Deltagate? Aren't those portals that are said to be the gateways between our world and the human world?" Jet asks, crossing his arms. "I always thought those were mere myths."

"They're all too real, Jet." Titania says, standing up. "Me and Inferno met on the other side, in the human world. Right after..." She looks down, and closes her eyes. "Never mind.."

Inferno sighs. _"Titania..."_

Jasmine, not picking up the mood, continues. "Well, I'm thinking they might have gone through one. I mean, they're scattered around the world, and we don't know where all of them are, so we might as well try looking through the forest. As soon as we find it, we can take it from there."

"How do you know that?" Jet asks, unfolding his arms.

"The thing about Deltagates is that you can choose where to appear on the other side, so long as you have knowledge of the place you want to appear in, or of a friend that's there that you want to visit."

"There's a catch though, isn't there? There always is." Titania states, checking through the treasure bag for items that could help them, not having much luck.

"It's...not very precise. It can only put you in the general area, and you'd be lucky if you were put right in front of your friend, or right in the location you wanted to go in."

A groan emits from all three of the other Pokemon.

"So even if we find the Deltagate, that's only part of our problem?! Aw crapsicles." Inferno exclaims.

"Buck up, Inferno." Titania tells him, putting one of her hands on his shoulder. "If it's to find a friend, we should both make the effort, and pull out all the stops to find him."

Inferno smiles at his team mate's words. "Thanks, T."

Jet looks between the two and smiles to himself. _"Wow...them two seem pretty close. I wonder if there's any more kinds of feelings hidden beneath the ones they let out?"_

"Have you seen the news?" A random passing Gothorita says to her Kirlia friend, holding a newspaper. "Team IceBurn are on some sort of mission to find a friend or something like that!"

"You think it's you-know-who?" The Kirlia replies, trying to get a glance at the paper. "Cause if so, they're only gonna be beating a dead Horsea. Loads of Pokemon have tried to search for him."

The four eavesdropping Pokemon look back at each other, curiosity etched on their faces.

"Gracie and Flarea are lookin' for him as well, how about that?" Inferno states, laughing. "Hey. Maybe we should pull them over and see if we can help them huh?" He chuckles, shaking his head.

..

"That's a great idea, Inferno." Titania praises him, determination etched on her face. "With IceBurn with us, we're sure to find that Deltagate and them eventually!"

"Titania, I was jo-"

"Woo!" Jasmine exclaims, fluttering into the air, a gleeful smile on her face. "It'll be great to see Grace again! It's been sooooo long!"

Inferno sits where he is, sighing and facepawing, Jet patting him on the back in comfort. That's when an envelope hits the ground in front of them with the words "To anyone that reads this" on the front. Inferno looks up to see a Pidgey circling the sky above them. He then looks back down at the envelope.

"Whoa. Looks pretty important. Yo, guys!" He shouts to Jasmine and Titania, who look over at them. "C'mere for a sec, a Pidgey gave us some sorta letter!"

* * *

"Wattson, I swear to Arceus, once we get outta this, I'm going to burn you so badly." Flarea threatens the Heliolisk matter-of-factly.

"It's always me who gets the blame isn't it?"

"It was you who shouted "Banzai" and leapt out at them when all we wanted to do was sneak past them!" Gracie shouts at him, her usually cool and collected attitude giving way for being uberly P.O'd at the electric type. "You of all Pokemon should know that Lost Wilderness is right next to a village for Darkrai cultists!"

"Well..." Wattson starts before falling back on his rear. "Yeah, I should have thought on..."

"Action first, thoughts later.." Flarea thinks out loud. "Who does that remind me of?"

Both the ice type and fire type laugh to themselves, thinking of the good times.

"We had fun back then, didn't we, Flares?"

"Yeah, we did. Tons of it."

The two look a little distant for a few moments before Gracie pipes up. "Remember when the concept of Team IceBurn was first thought up?"

Flarea smirks. "How could I forget? It was after that job me, you, Bolt and Karu took together."

Gracie smiles a little brighter. "Oh yeah. They double teamed the Muk we were supposed to bring to justice, but ended up grounded and poisoned. We were out of Pecha Berries for the time being, so they had to stay behind at the guild while me and you teamed up to go for another job. One that **had **a batch of Pecha Berries as a reward."

"Uh huh...too bad they were guarded by clan of Houndour. We didn't stand much of a chance, did we?"

"Well, after a cured duo of Bolt and Karu showed up, delivered a pre-ass kicking speech and broke out their moves, neither did they."

"They were so pleased with themselves. You could tell because that was the first legit time they openly bro-hugged each other in front of us." Flarea reminds her.

The two foxes giggle at the memory, then look at Wattson, who's on his back, asleep.

"Leave it to ol' Watts to fall asleep while...while we're getting executed first thing tomorrow morning." Flarea growls and looks outside at the rain. "Fucking cultists...Fucking rain."

"We could always write a note."

"Uh?"

"Y'know...a letter? You still got that parchment, right? The stuff that lets explorers send out rescue requests if they get stuck?"

Inside Flarea's head, gears shift for a few moments, before she springs to life. "Gracie, you're a genius!"

"I was only using common sense." She shrugs and glances outside, seeing a lone Pidgey snooping outside their cell. _"The cultists mustn't deem Pidgies a big problem for them." _She squees and trots on over to the cell bars. "Pssst. Psssssst!"

The Pidgey looks over at the noises Gracie's making, and tilts his head. "Huh?"

"Come here! I need you for a moment!" She tells him in a hushed voice. As the Pidgey hops over, looking left and right, Gracie leans down to him. "Are you fast at all?"

"Fastest in me clan, why?" He asks in an Irish accent.

"You not from here then?"

"Naw, Darkrai sounds like an evil pillock."

"Good..."

"Hold on a mo..Are ye Flarea and Gracie from Team IceBurn?"

Sensing a bout of hero worshipping coming on, the ice type nods. "Yeah, that's us. But can you deliver a letter to anybody nearby to come help us? We're in a really tight spot right now."

"Oh, aye!" He agrees immediately, and an envelope gets shoved into his beak by Flarea.

"Good. Now get going before the crazies spot you."

The Pidgey nods, taking off into the sky, proving his swiftness as he flies into the distance.

The two foxes watch on as he does, hopefulness rising in their chests.

…

"What did you put in that letter, by the way, Flares?"

"Oh, just 'Darkrai cultists kidnapped us, come save, halp', that sort of thing."

* * *

"Huh. Straight to the point, I must say." Titania compliments.

"But why did you come here?" Jet asks. "All the way across the ocean. Why?"

"Are ya kiddin'? Honchkrows belong to tha cult! Mandibuzzes and even a Hydreigon too. They patrol from tha air, and if I tried flying in their airspace, I'd be sayin' goodbye to ma caboose!"

"Fair point.." Inferno sits down and thinks for a moment. "How're we gonna get there?"

"Oh, I took care o' that! I found a couple o' Lapras drifting around the shore, so I asked them to come get ya and take ya to there!"

"Niiice!" Inferno yells into the air, and the Pokemon walk towards each other.

"Alright, team. We're putting the search for Bolt on hold temporarily." Titania tells them with the tone of a leader in her voice.

"Geez, we keep switchin' tasks like a Ditto switches forms and sex." Inferno remarks, rolling his eyes.

"Precisely, which is why, after this, all efforts are towards searching for Bolt, and that Lucario friend of his." Titania adds.

"Bolt?!" The Pidgey asks, eyes wide. "Sweet merciful Arceus...it's Team IceBurn we're savin'!"

"Well that makes it even better!" Jasmine flutters in the air, grinning. "We're gonna be saving Team IceBurn **and** helping reunite them with their former teammates!"

"I like the sound of that." Jet states with a smirk. "Let's so take down some cultists."

"You speak my language, Jet." Inferno says after shooting a Flamethrower into the sky. "Let's rumble in the jungle!"

The Pidgey leads the way, and Titania follows him, motioning the others to follow. "That's how it stands. Operation: Fox Rescue is a-go!"

"Aye!"

* * *

"_Can ya feeeeel liiife...movin' through your mind...?"_

"Wattson, can you please stop singing that?" Flarea asks, as politely as she can manage under stress. "That's the fifth time you've sung it since we left Treasure Town."

"Sorry."

All goes quiet once more, for about a few moments, until Gracie pipes up. "Where'd you hear that song anyway? It's nothing I've ever heard before."

"Eh, I heard it while I was on a solo mission in Port Fort. A quartet of Quilava were busking...can you not put me down this one time? I'm only tryin' to lighten the mood, Flare.."

Flarea looks away and sighs. "I'm sorry...it's just sometimes, you either mess up at the worst of times, have the stupidest of habits, and play constant pranks on me when you're not out on missions or picking fights with Beach Cave inhabitants."

"Nobody's perfect." Wattson retorts.

Flarea goes silent almost immediately. "That...that's true." She looks down, closing her eyes. "I haven't even told Blaze who her own father is yet. I've been waiting for him to return to the guild and apologise, for so long...but I don't even know if he's still alive or not."

"We're gonna find out for sure right? Once we're outta here, we're gonna be lookin' for Bolt once more. What's stoppin' us from tryin' to find Karu as well?"

"That's...that's true...but...what if he's gotten used to the freelance life? What if he doesn't want to come back to the guild?! What i-"

"Flarea, with all due respect, can you shut up?" Wattson simply asks, making Flarea close her mouth. She's never had this sort of conversation with Wattson before. Since when did he get so profound and self confident? "You've grown to be a headstrong, take-no-shit warrior in the 5 years since he left. If he doesn't agree, knock his ass out and drag him back by the tail, like you would with me if I pissed you off. His departure pissed you off right?"

Flarea nods.

"Then don't take no for an answer from that ass."

She nods again, smiling. "I will...Wattson?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. You deserve more credit than you get sometimes."

"Don't mention it...seriously don't."

She chuckles, and lies down to try and get some rest.

That's when it hits.

An Ice Beam strikes the ground outside their cell, and the resulting ice completely surrounds it, blocking off any clear sight to the outside.

"What the heck was that?!" Wattson exclaims, getting to his feet.

"Is there an attack against the cult going on?!" Flarea asks, in a bit of a panic.

That's when the back of the cell caves in, and what looks to be Signal Beam mixed with Thundershock burst through, causing the three to leap out of the way, making it hit the cell bars, destroying them.

"That was too close...who did that?" Gracie wonder out loud, that's when a little head pokes through. A Pichu with a bow on her ear. Seeing the three, she smiles brightly.

"Rescue party!"

* * *

Nothing much to say aside from surprise! :D

And sorry about the long wait again. RL stuff keeps getting in the way.

Ciao till next time!


	8. Cold as Ice

Gracie blinks. Then again. Did this child seriously blow a hole in the back of the cell they've been staying in? Who shot that Ice Beam that covered the front of the cell up? More to the point, who are they? How did they know they're here?

"Uhh..are you three alright?" She giggles, shaking her head. "You look like you've all seen a ghost! C'mon, you can get outta this place before those bad guys get back!"

The three look at each other cautiously before Gracie and Wattson walk towards the hole. "Wait!" They hear from the fire type. They look back at her and see her hesitating. "I'm...not comfortable in rain."

"You do remember you know Sunny Day right?" Wattson chimes in, tilting his head. "Right?"

Flarea stand there frozen for a few seconds before her paw meets her face. "Right...sorry. Stupid Tyranitar and his stupid Focus Punch to the face."

Many an apology and a handy weather change later, Team IceBurn are out of their cell, and they see just who has helped this Pichu to blow the hole in the wall. A Surskit.

"Hey, guys! I'm Ashe!"

"And I'm Kami! I think that means lightning in some other weird language." The Pichu adds after introducing herself.

"Who told you that?"

"It was B-"

"More to the point!" Flarea interrupts, looking down at the two. "What are you two even doing here? It's dangerous! Cultists who worship Darkrai inhabit this part of the forest! Look, I'm grateful for you saving us bu-"

"Flarea."

The Ninetails looks over at Gracie, who shakes her head. "If they're out here and still alive in the first place, then they're obviously more competent than they look. Weren't we only young when we started exploring?"

"Yes, but we also started out exploring dungeons and caverns **nearer to the guild**. We're out in the middle of nowhere, and no town in sight. These kids shouldn't be out here! Where are their parents is what I wanna know!"

"..I was hatched an orphan." Kami bluntly states, her face deadpanned.

"...Ohh.." Flarea sweats a little, and backs up a little, chuckling nervously. "Sorryyyy..."

Gracie walks in front of Ashe and Kami and sits, facing Flarea. "They're coming with us."

"Say wha..?" Wattson exclaims.

"Are you serious?!" Flarea shouts. "We can't take these kids with us! They could get seriously hurt! And besides, this should be a team decision."

"I'm okay with it." Wattson pipes in.

"Quiet you!"

"They're competent, like I said! Besides, it isn't like we were so perfect when we were starting out! We had our fair shares of bad defeats!"

"Name one!"

"Grovyle."

"...Two."

"Dusknoir and his Sableye goons."

Flarea grunts, desperate for Gracie to see things her way. "I still thi-"

"Nope."

"...But I seriously-"

"Nuh uh."

"...I don't really have a choice whether they come along or not, do I?"

"Just as long as the choice is to let them." She answers with a shit-eating grin on her face.

..

…

"Dammit, fine."

Gracie does a little trot in place, giggling her little ass off.

"I swear Gracie, you picked up some of Bolt's crap 10 years ago."

She's met with Gracie's tongue stuck out at her, making the children amongst them giggle, and Wattson turn away and sweatdrop.

"Aaaanyway..shall we go?" Gracie asks the group, who vehemently agree.

"Agreed. They could be back at any time."

Kami and Ashe suddenly get in Flarea's face. "So you're alright with us travelling with us, right?" They chorus, looking up at her with cute, puppy dog eyes.

Flarea freezes and sweats. _"Those eyes. Not those eyes! I thought I was mentally prepared for the day Blaze learned to do it, this is too early!"_

All is silent, as the eyes intensify their effect, causing Flarea to crumble. "Okay, I'm fine with it. But do as we tell you when we tell you!"

The two nod vigorously, then go into cheers, then quiet cheers as per Team IceBurn's request, as the group moves out.

Flarea hangs behind and leans over to Gracie. "You're keeping them around because the Pichu reminds you of **him**, right?" She whispers.

Gracie doesn't look at her, but answers anyway. "Guilty. Weeell that and the fact that they saved us from being executed or something. I can't die now. Not when I've got a goal to focus on."

Flarea sighs and shakes her head. "Honestly..."

"I'm searching for the guy I love, and I want any reminder of him to stick around as long as possible, is that so wrong?" She whispers back.

"The guy I loved went apeshit and ran out on us. He ran out on me. I didn't cry for 5 years until now, did I?"

She's met with cold, blue eyes, staring into her soul right after that, making her freeze in place.

"Because, you had Blaze. You had a daughter, that was his own flesh and blood with you. You had her to raise, to love. What did I get in the end? A statue in the town square. An empty, lifeless reminder of what I don't have anymore. No sudden news after I came home from Temporal Tower that I was carrying a child."

"Gracie, I-"

"No. I don't wanna hear it. Just...I...kind of need to be on my own for a little bit. Think. All that sort of stuff." She walks past her, and heads the other way.

"Wait a sec-"

"Look after Kami til I get back, 'kay?" She says before bounding off the opposite way, holding in her tears, which threaten to fall.

"Gracie, come on!" Flarea shouts after her best friend and teammate, feeling extremely guilty for the remarks earlier. "The imprisonment made me cranky, that's all!"

"Fuck off!" She hears back from the Glaceon, which causes her to flinch, and Wattson, Kami and Ashe's jaws to drop completely. Flarea sees Gracie just disappear back into the forest, not looking back.

"Grace..." She sits down, and looks at the ground, trying not to let loose tears of her own. Wattson comes to her side and puts his hand on her shoulder in comfort.

"Let her go. She'll catch up to us. She can't stay mad for that long."

"..Yeah...let's go kids. She'll be back."

She stands up, and leads the group off, in a deathly silence. Because right now, Flarea doesn't want it any other way.

"_I hope."_

* * *

(A/N For effect, Zinnia's Sorrow from ORAS would do right here ;3)

Meanwhile, Gracie bounds through the forest, tears now flowing freely, and now not caring where she ends up.

"_Stupid Flarea...stupid Wattson...stupid guild...they don't understand my pain..they don't know how much I've had to endure every single year, every **day** since he disappeared. They might have had an idea by merely looking at me when I'm down, but they haven't **experienced it**. Honestly, I don't envy them one bit."_

Like a bad case of deja vu, flashback after flashback of her adventures with Bolt fly through her mind, causing her to run faster, and faster.

"_Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!" _

She turns the corner, running past a gaggle of Duckletts, who look back at her, tilting their heads in a dopey way.

"'Lett?"

After running quite a ways away, she finally comes to a halt, panting, and catching her breath. "I can't...take...any...more...of...this.." She opens her eyes once more, and lets out a growl. "Bolt...wherever you are..if you're back...WHY. WON'T YOU SHOW YOURSELF TO ME?!" With a yell, she lets loose a Hyper Beam, spreading it out around her, and following it, is a trail of fiery destruction, the epicentre being one very pissed off Glaceon.

Two phrases come to mind at this point, and every witness of that scene can vouch for them.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

And big things come in small packages.

The shiny Pokemon walks away from the fire, her eyes so cold they could put Kyurem to shame.

Even the creatures with the type advantage don't want to fuck with her.

About an hour later, she comes across a burrow. But there's a reason this burrow's got a mention, and her attention. It's because there's a green-ish glow coming from inside it.

"What's this...?" She wonders out loud, peeking in. Her eyes widen, as she sees a green...sphere...portal looking light glaring at her, and reflecting from her eyes. "Could it...maybe...lead me to him...?" She leaps into the burrow, and walks towards it, not taking her eyes from it. "Lead me to him...lead me to Bolt..."

With a deep breath, and eyes closed, she leaps in.

* * *

**Location: Santalune Woods, Kalos**

In a flash of green light, Gracie appears in the open. She looks around at this new place.

Night time.

The area around her only illuminated by the light of the moon.

"Is this where that light brought me...?" She continues to inspect this new place, until her eyes catch a glimpse of a yellow tail disappearing through some tall grass.

A bolt shaped tail.

The sight makes her heart skip a beat.

"Bolt!"

She runs after the Pikachu, really excited. Any trace of her earlier coldness has dissipated. All that matters is catching up to him.

After a few minutes of running through tall grass, she comes to a clearing, and the Pikachu's stood there with his back to her. She runs towards him. "Bolt! I've finally found y-"

Alas, she's interrupted, as the Pikachu turns to face her. A lightning bolt shaped scar can be seen over his eye. She skids to a halt, her eyes widened.

She's seen him before.

"It's you...you're that fake that pretended to be Bolt before!"

The Pikachu studies her for a few moments, before he breaks out into a grin.

"Oooh! It's you! The wimpy little crybaby who had to rely on her partner to win the fight back on Mt. Bristle. We gotta stop meeting up like this, Ice Queen. 'Mons are gonna talk."

"Oh go fuck yourself with a 10ft pole, I've had the worst day ever, and the last thing I need is you parading around giving my friend a bad name!"

"Ooohhh, fiesty!" He laughs, letting an eerily black volt of electricity course through his body before stopping. "You remind me of someone I once knew."

"What, someone so pissed, she could freeze your 'nads off?"

"No. Shiny, small, bark worse than her bite."

"Screw off! You don't know what I'm capable of!"

"Oh please. You couldn't beat me back on Mt. Bristle without your friend. What makes you think you can beat me now?" An idea comes to his head. "Unless you were holding back last time?" Seeing her back off a little, he grins and crosses his arms, and closes his eyes, feeling pretty damn cocky. "So that's it? I'm the same species as your loverboy, so you couldn't bring yourself to consciously give it your all against me! So would you mind letting me know what's different this ti-"

He opens his eyes once more, to see she isn't even there. All he can see is a..hole..

"Oh, shi-"

Gracie shoots out of the ground, hitting the Pikachu with the Super Effective Dig. He doesn't have any time to recover either, as her Iron Tail connects with his face, sending him flying backwards a bit. She uses the impact to bounce away from him and get back on all fours.

"Alright...you asked for it now."

Landing on his feet, he charges up a Thunderbolt made with black electricity and launches it at Gracie, but she dodges in time. _"It wasn't like that before!" _Gathering her wits, she launches an Ice Beam, which connects with his right arm, freezing it.

"Ngh!" He looks at her with hateful eyes. "You really **were** holding back last time." The ice bursts from his arm as his paw becomes covered in thunder. "Come on then, ya little bitch!" He lunges at her, ready to nail her in the face with Thunderpunch, but she's quicker on the draw and unleashes a Blizzard attack, which he gets caught up in, flying backwards into a tree, and shivering as he gets to his feet. "What changed? You're coming at me as if you wanna kill me now. Before, you fought me like you didn't really want to."

"Before, I wasn't sure you were him or not. Before, I kept hope that you'd gone insane, and I could get my Bolt back. But now I know. I know you're not him. You're a mockery. An imposter! A SHAM! Right now, I couldn't care less whether you lived or died."

"Oooohhhh..careful, ice queen, if you got any colder, you could end up falling to the dark side." The Pikachu goads her with a shit eating grin on his yellow scarred face. Gracie lets out a primal yell, and intiates Giga Impact, running at him. He only smirks, and lets his cheeks crackle, waiting for the impact. He's hit, and is sent flying backwards, and rolling across the ground. He lifts his head up to look at her about to pounce again.

But she doesn't.

Lightning crackle around her.

"Paralysed." The Pikachu states before getting back to his feet. "You fought better than last time, that's for sure! But now, the tables have turned." He walks towards her, body crackling in lightning, watching as her previous anger twists into pure horror. "So that's what you call me? Fake? Sham? Imposter? _Mockery? _The last thing Grovyle said before he disappeared into the future with Dusknoir. The very last thing. What was it?"

"I'm not...telling you.." She lets out, trying to move.

"You don't have to...Oh yeah. 'Though the parting hurts...the rest is in your hands! Sorry for the hold up, Dusknoir!'" He imitates dramatically, before making a **pew **sound to replicate the sound of the time portal disappearing all those years ago.

"N-no..." She gasps out, her face going whiter than her natural shininess allows her. "T-this isn't..."

He uses agility to suddenly appear in front of her, and shocks her with Thunderbolt, making her cry out in agony, and fall to the floor. She doesn't have chance to even open her eyes, before a Thunderpunch to the face, sends her flying back a good few feet, and rolling to a stop right in front of a tree. He walks over and grabs her by the throat, then holds her against said tree.

"That sunset. On the beach, just after the storm. You walked onto the beach near the guild because you were scared of joining on your own. You found me, woke me up, called my name funny, then we went to go get that fragment of yours because those pathetic poison types took it!"

Bam. Another Thunderpunch to the face causes her to cry out. "Remember the Dimensional Scream? Those little visions of the past or future I got from touching something related?" Another. "And our first crim catching job, when we caught Drowsee." One to the gut. "Amp Plains. The same poison types who took your fragment had found that little Water Float, and we went to get it back, when it was mating season for the Luxio and Electrike tribes. It's a good thing Dusknoir was there to come to our rescue wasn't it?" Backhanded Thunderpunch to the face. "Don't call me a fake, _Grace._ I'm just as real as the next Pikachu. I _am_ Bolt." Charging his fist up with more electricity, he punches her again, then lets her fall to the floor afterwards. "Huh...still breathing, hm? You're resilient." He charges up a Focus Blast, and grins. "Goodnight, _love_. See you on the other side!"

He brings his arm back to fire it point blank, but he hears the sound of whirring propellers, and he cancels it out. "Hm. Looks like there's going to be more company than I'm comfortable with." He turns around and takes a few steps forward. "We'll meet again. And I **will** end it." He runs off, and disappears into the woods, leaving a physically and emotionally battered Ice type to pass out, a single tear falling down her face.

* * *

**Well that happened :p**

**Yeah, these are getting more frequent, don't worry. I'll try my best to keep it up. Besides, not many more chapters to go. Anyway, ciao!**


	9. Ambush in Lavender

"She's not here!" Ashe shouts as she glides back to Flarea, Wattson and Kami, having just been to the area Gracie let loose her frustration and anger. "I put out the blaze to save a few homes, but Gracie herself's not there!"

"Did she melt?!" Kami asks in horror, but Wattson pats her head.

"Naw, I think only Crygonals can melt. Trust me, if the fire overwhelmed her, and she bit the dust, Ashe woulda found her." He grimaces. "Or what was left.."

"How long were we waiting for her before I went in to look?" Ashe asks, earning a shrug off the Heliolisk among them.

"Beats me. There ain't a sundial for miles."

"It doesn't matter." Flarea says calmly. "We're going after her, we going to get this thing resolved, then we're going to find Bolt, like we were always going to."

Kami's head shoots up. "Bolt! He's probably worrying himself silly because of those stupid Combee.."

"Hold on."

Kami looks up at Flarea, who walks carefully towards her. "You talk as if you know him."

"Uhhh...saved the world 10 years ago from freezing...right?"

Flarea stops in front of her, and sits down. "Yes...how do you know him?"

"Well...he saved me..."

"Saved you? From who?" She asks her, her interest piqued.

"A Skuntank, a Weezing and a Crobat. Team Skull I think they were called."

At this point, Flarea has to keep herself from smirking to remain serious...but she fails.

"Oh, I remember them. Y'know, after what they did at Brine Cave, I thought they had a sense of honour...apparently, I was wrong. Was he alone?"

"Well, he teamed up with a Mawile and a Growlithe and dispatched them by their side...he didn't even remember much then, I think."

Flarea's smirk grows. _"Teaming up with someone while having a touch of amnesia? Where have I heard that before?" _

"Uhhh...Flare?" Wattson's voice snaps her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"I think we got company."

Kami, Flarea and Ashe look around them, and their hearts stop.

Sableye. Everywhere.

"They found us!" Flarea quietly tells Kami and Ashe.

"Who?"

"The Darkrai cult."

"I remember them as well. I don't know if it's the right ones, but they came to Pokemon Square, and terrorised everyone, even injuring a few because they spoke against them."

"They what?!"

"Guys."

"What, Wattson?"

"I got a plan. Just duck."

"What?"

"PARABOLIC CHARGE!"

The other three get the message and drop to the ground. Wattson spreads his frills, and creates a sphere of electricity above him. Thunder shoots in multiple directions, hitting all the Sableye.

"Whoa..." Kami admires quietly.

As the group of Sableye fall, the four Pokemon take that chance, and run.

* * *

"Hey, Bolt?"

"Yeah, Karu?"

"Have you been getting the feeling that something bad's happening? Like far away, and you can't do a thing about it?"

"Yeah, and I don't know why, but it's like you said, that's there and we're here, so it ain't like we can do too much about it right now."

It's night time, and the two have arrived on the outskirts of a small town on the coast. They're looking at some sort of tower, which looks eerily like a face.

"That's creepy AF."

"'AF'?"

"'As fuck'."

"Oh...yeah, I can agree with ya on that. One question."

"Yes?"

"Why are you using my head as something to sit on?"

"Because my legs are stubby, and yours aren't."

"That's...a legit reason."

That's right. Bolt is sitting on Karu's head while the latter continues along.

"Did you see a sign on the way here?" Karu asks, folding his arms. "I'd at least expect you to look around while riding me."

..

..

..

"Karu."

"Yes?"

"Please never say that again."

"Agreed."

"Anyway, yes of course I saw a sign. 'Lavender Town, a small town covered in a beautiful hue of purple'."

Karu scoffs at the description. "'Beautiful'? Is that what they're calling it?" This makes Bolt chuckle.

"You ain't scaaared of ghosts are you?"

"W-what?! No! Of course not!" Karu replies a little too defensively. "They just...mess with my aura detection."

"Pfft. Whatever. Anyway, why did you suddenly decide to jump on a bus literally, and come here? Of all places we could have seen while waiting for Dawn's ladykiller friend."

"I dunno, I guess..." Karu spaces out for a moment, his eyes flashing blue. "I just...felt compelled to do so...like something was drawing me here."

"Creepy."

"Shut up, it's the truth."

"Alright, alright dude...geez, I'm usually the one getting riled and you're usually the one being all calm. Role reversal's weird."

"End of the line." Karu swats Bolt off of his head, making him faceplant into the ground.

"Hey!"

At that moment, Karu summons twin Bone Rushes and blocks a Fury Swipes attack by a Meowth.

A really pissed off Meowth at that.

"What the fuck?" Bolt exclaims, eyes suddenly wide with shock (no pun intended).

The Meowth lands on his hind legs, ducks under a Bone Rush swipe, and slashes Karu in the chest twice before blasting him back with Water Pulse, sending him flying a few ten feet.

Using the new wetness on Karu, the Meowth charges up a Thunderbolt and sends it at Karu.

Only for it to get intercepted by Bolt's own.

"Oi, whiskers!"

The Meowth turns to glare at Bolt, whose cheeks are sparking. One thing the Pikachu notices straight away is the outfit the Meowth has. A stetson, a red neck scarf (which coincidentally clashes with Bolt's blue one) and boots.

"Aren't you that same Meowth who won the Hoenn League some years ago?"

"Hmph. You're mistaking me with someone else." He runs at Bolt, and slashes at him. But he leaps up, activates Iron Tail, and hits him in the face, making him stumble. "Ungh!"

"Lightning's **my** thing. Looks like imitation's yours. I bet call yourself "Tyson" as well, don't you?"

"Why don't you shut up?" He retorts, and his claws suddenly sharpen. _"Hone Claws.."_

He leaps at Bolt, and lands a few hits of Fury Swipes, but the last few miss, and Bolt jumps backwards and practically throws an Electro Ball at him. He changes to Shadow Claw, and cuts through it.

"Whoa..." Bolt admires for a moment before noticing something about the Shadow Claw. "What in the..."

The thing he's noticed is that as well as the ghostly energy around his claws have mixed with Bolt's lightning from the Electro Ball.

"Exactly what I was waiting for." Tyson remarks, before running at Bolt once more, ready to strike.

"Whoa, he's pretty fast!" Bolt tells himself before countering his electrified Shadow Claw with Focus Punch. The force of both attacks causes a burst of power to erupt from impact, and blows the two backwards, dust covering the makeshift battle field.

As if settles, both of them are standing their ground, staring each other down. Thunder fills the air as both of them charge up another Thunderbolt, and walk towards each other. The two butt heads and let loose, glaring each other in the eyes.

"Back off." Tyson warns.

"No, you back off!" Bolt retorts, pushing against him. "We just came here to look around, is that so wrong?"

"I'm afraid you don't quite understand. There's a dangerous Pokemon here, and he-"

"Got it. Karu, go for it!" Bolt shouts with a grin, and a recovered Karu knocks the door down with Bone Rush and sprints in.

"Don't get K.O'd on me, Bolt!"

"Same with you, Karu."

"Don't you even go there!" Tyson breaks away, and fires a Shadow Ball at Karu, only for it to be intercepted by Electro Ball. He glares at Bolt, who's on all fours, crackling his cheeks. "If you insist, mousey."

"C'mon, whiskers, it takes two to tango."

And the two charge at each other.

* * *

**Lumiose City**

A middle aged human man wearing an orange suit sits at his desk in his private suite at a hotel. A Persian sits by his side, purring as his owner strokes his head gently, ears flopped.

All is peaceful...right up until a ringing sound interrupts the man and his thoughts.

"Aah!"

He falls out of his chair, but manages to scramble to his feet.

He picks up the phone and puts it to his ear. "This better be important!"

"Sir."

"Aahh...Cassidy and Batch."

"It's Butch!"

"Quiet. Anyway, sir, we've managed to find another worthy capture."

"Another one? Cassidy, you've found me a Tyranitar, a Metagross, a Golurk, and that Dragonite you caught yesterday was no slouch either. What else have you caught this time?"

"A Glaceon."

..

..

"You're joking, right? If you are, it isn't funny."

"But sir-"

"Explain! Most of Vicious' Dark Balls were destroyed after that incident in the forest, and it isn't like Cipher are around any more!"

"There's not much I can say except that I'll send you this Glaceon's stats and everything about it. Also, it didn't take long for the Dark Ball to turn her to the darkness. She was halfway there already."

An eyebrow raised, the man opens up a laptop, and boots it up.

"Alright, send them."

As data is streamed to his laptop, a grin makes its way onto his face.

"Not bad...not bad at all." His head tilts. "A little on the short side, but her power makes up for it. Yees...I have a special place reserved for this one."

* * *

**Nothing more to say other than sorry if the chapter's a little bit short, and review and tell me whatcha think! It motivates a writer, y'know?**

**Toodles!**


	10. Struggle against the Darkness

**Disclaimer: The references near the beginning are there are possible failed attempts at comedy. Also, in a review, tell me where the references originate from :p**

* * *

Walking through the hallways of the tower seriously does nothing to help Karu's bravado. The adrenaline pumping through his veins caused him to run in, fangs bared and aura blazing, but now...he's looking around cautiously, aura guard on high alert.

"Damn it, Bolt...I could have taken him. You could have come in here instead..."

Every little noise makes him increasingly jumpy and sweaty. Heck, he even has a prepared Bone Rush for anybody that decides jumping him would be a good choice.

"I'm not scared...I'm not scared...I'm not scared.."

Gripping his Bone Rush, each step he takes is careful.

"I've faced tougher than this...I've faced tougher than this...I've faced tougher than-"

"Surprise, muthafucka."

Bone Rush connects with the face of an unfortunate Shuppet, who falls to the floor, fainted.

"Dammit..." With a huff, Karu continues, keeping a careful eye out for more ghost types who might want to try their luck.

"Who's up for a cheeky Nando's, then, aye, lads?"

The Bone Rush comes down hard onto a Lampent who floats right in front of him.

"Another one?"

"Allons-y!"

A Golett is K.O'd through a wall, courtesy of Karu.

"GRAY-SAMA-"

He lets loose a Flash Cannon to silence a Misdreavus.

"You're all starting to piss me off with all these Arceus-damned references!"

He stands there panting, his eyes dilated in pure anger, and his aura pulsing around his body.

But that's when his aura picks up something familiar. Not the same as something, but pretty dang close.

"Is that her..? Flarea? No. But dammit, that feels so much like her it isn't funny. **Extreme Speed!**"

He takes off down the hallway, past a Sableye, who tilts his head at his fallen comrades.

* * *

Meanwhile, Bolt and the Meowth who called himself Tyson are still duking it out, blow for blow, neither of them backing down. Bolt's sporting quite a few scratch marks and bruises thanks to this Meowth's cat-like reflexes. Which is a given seeing as well, he's a cat. The Meowth himself is sporting a few bruises and burns from Bolt's lightning.

"You ain't half bad, to be quite honest..." Bolt compliments his opponent, taking a little breather before launching another electric attack at him, which he dodges, and uses his speed to get close to him, slashing at him a few times. Bolt dodges, and bats him away with Iron Tail.

"You're not so bad yourself, mouse boy. When you let that friend of yours go, and decided to make it a one on one bout, I was, to say the least, shocked. No pun intended." Bolt lets out a small chuckle at that. "But you're able to back up your words, unlike the small time criminals I've faced."

"Criminals? You some sort of warrior of justice?"

"Not really, I'm only this town's...guardian, should I say?"

"Ooooh! Like a Meowth Peter Parker?"

"I was thinking more of Bruce Wayne, but Parker works." He crosses his forelegs and sighs. "But recently, there's been a few reports of...nightmares."

"Nightmares?"

"Now I know nightmares might be normal, but when I say 'a few', what I really mean is, nearly everybody in town has had them. That's why Lavender Town is more of a ghost town than normal!...And why I'm coming down hard on suspicious looking Pokemon."

"Yeah, I heard that tourists were starting to avoid it like the plague. That's what's causing it? Nightmares?"

He nods, and sighs. "We've tried to stop the culprit once before, but whoever goes in, they try to fight him, but he first puts them to sleep, uses the move Nightmare on them, then after they've suffered, he deposits them right outside, and the victim runs away. No matter what happens, whatever they try, he always gets them in the end...that's why I have to end it myself." He folds his arms and tilts his head. "Though I don't get why there's snow around the tower...in the middle of summer."

"And that's why you tried to shoot my best friend in the back?" Bolt asks, crossing his own forelegs, and tapping his foot. "Not very tactful, are you?"

"He kidnapped someone I've been taking care of for a few days now!"

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"A small, shiny Vulpix, probably around the age of 5. Calls herself Blaze."

"Seriously? Shiny Vulpix? That's rare."

"Indeed."

"Didn't she say if she had some sort of family? Or is she an orphan?"

"She knows her mother's actual name, surprisingly..." He takes a deep breath, though he doesn't really know why he's sharing this information. For all he knows, this Pikachu could be a kidnapper himself. Though you, the readers, know he isn't. "Flarea is her mother's name."

..

..

..

"What."

"Hm?"

"You've picked up Flarea's daughter." It's more a statement than a question.

"Yeeees?"

"Flarea's a friend of mine...though.." He thinks back to the flashback Gardevoir showed him, and thinks back to how Karu and Flarea seemed. "_They argued with each other more like a couple than anything..no...no freaking way." _"Ohh shit." His face hits realisation like a ton of bricks. "Oh crap, crap, crap, crap!"

"What, what is it?!" 'Tyson' demands from his apparent opponent.

"B-blaze is...Karu's daughter." Immediately, a paw goes over his mouth. "His daughter. If Karu gets there, he'll freaking slaughter the perp!"

"What..?"

"Mate, I don't know how powerful or sneaky this culprit is, but when pissed off, Karu **will **tear his enemy a new one. He sent one of the heaviest Pokemon around, a Regirock, flying into the air complete with a twinkle in the sky."

.

.

.

"Oh."

"Yeah. I don't fancy cleaning up any messes either."

"Let's get there before it gets messy...er."

Bolt holds out his open paw. "Truce?"

"Truce." They shake paws in agreement, and then, for the sake of puns, bolt inside the tower, chasing after the Lucario.

* * *

"Compared to the list of plans you've made in the past, Wattson, that was pretty good."

"Awwww, you flatter me!"

As the battle at Lavender Tower continues, as does this battle here. Though it's more the heroes running away to safety.

Or attempting to at the very least.

Their plight is cut short, as a Bisharp leaps in front of them. Of course, Flarea isn't having any of it, and runs ahead of the group, unleashing a scorching hot Heat Wave, powered up by the Sunny Day, which the rather unfortunate Steel type, and a few approaching Sableye, right away.

A Cacturne leaps out of the bushes, but is quickly silenced by a Signal Beam from Ashe. "Oh no you don't ya green freak!"

"Keep moving! We should be outta here soon! Damn, how many'a these guys are there?" Wattson says as he dodges a Night Slash from a Greninja. Only just. "Nope!" He launches a point blank Thunderbolt, sending the Greninja flying back. But much to Wattson's chagrin, the Greninja recovers and starts pelting him with Water Shurikens, each one getting more powerful than the last.

"You were wrong to oppose us, electric type." He charges up a larger Water Shuriken, and sets his calm yet stern glare onto Wattson. "Now you shall be first to fall! You should have never been assosiated with his slayers!" He sends it at him, but Wattson grins and uses Dragon Tail to bat it right back at him. It wounds the Greninja, causing him to stumble, and hold his arm, grunting in pain. "H-how did..?"

Wattson's right in his face the next second, grinning maniacally. "Gracie and Flarea have both got something to find. Or rather, some **one. **Word of advice." His frills spread out, electricity licking his body. "Don't ever make light of our guild!" He lets loose another Thunderbolt, and Greninja. "Prick." Kami meanwhile glances over at Wattson in actual awe.

"_Is this how a member of the guild fights..?"_

Her ear pricks up, and she just manages to move out of the way as a Honchkrow's wing attack skims her head. "W-whoa!"

The Honchkrow flies up into the air, spins gracefully a few times, then comes to a halt, glaring down at the Pichu. "Don't think that because you're a small fry, we're going to let you off!"

"It's Branwen!"

"She's joined the fray!"

"Nyeheheheh! This will be good!"

Hearing the clamouring of the Sableye, she silences them with an immediate glare. "Quiet! This here is my prey. Get lost and find your own!" The Sableye scatter in response, making Branwen face-wing. _"Why do I work with such idiots...?" _However, a strike of Thundershock interrupts her thoughts. She glares down at Kami, who was obviously the one responsible for it, as Wattson is helping Flarea and Ashe clear out the rest of the Sableye. "So it's settled. I'll make an example of you." **(A/N Word of advice, writing the next part with Engage the Enemy from Xenoblade felt right, soo...give it a listen :3)**

Kami glared and bares her teeth. "Just try me!" Her cheeks light up, and spark. "Thundershock!" She lets loose her attack straight at Branwen, who, seeing it coming, veers out of the way, and flies towards her, eyes locked on her prey.

Kami's eyes widen, and she re-aims the Thunderstock towards Branwen, but the latter simply barrel rolls around the attack. "Aerial Ace!" Within a second, Branwen closes the gap, and hits Kami head on, sending her flying backwards, and rolling across the ground.

The mouse Pokemon comes to a halt, and gets up, sparking a little. "O-ow...what the heck..?"

"Have you already forgotten, little one?" Kami looks up to the Honchkrow. "Every time a Pichu uses an electrical attack, they get shocked as well! I guess it can be compared to the likes of Wild Charge and Volt Tackle in that respect."

Kami gasps, but bares her teeth, her cheeks charging up once more.

"Oh, a sucker for punishment are you? Very well then. It's on!" Her wings glow a shimmering white. "Steel Wing!" She flies at Kami once more, and is about to swipe her wings at her, but she leaps up, and onto her back. "What?!"

"Thundershock!"

Branwen squawks in pain, as the lightning fueled rat on her back nails her with electricity, which isn't helped by the steel encased wings conducting it. She's only shooting herself in the talon keeping the attack activated.

Kami meanwhile, has her teeth gritted, trying to both keep up the attack, and endure the pain of recoil damage.

"_H-how did Bolt do it?! How did he manage to endure the pain of recoil from electricity?!...Unless it's because he learned a lot of different type moves...why didn't I think of that...I can't take much more..." _Flashbacks of Bolt laid in bed, waking up, battling Inferno, winning, snuggling up with her, then grinning because of his neckscarf she bought him run through her mind, as she short out, panting, one eye open. She hopes that did something to Branwen, and it did. Her feathers are burnt...but that's it. She's still flying properly. "W-what...?!"

"Get it out of your system?" She flips Kami off, then whacks her with Steel Wing, making her bounce off of a tree, and land on the ground, trembling.

"Kami!" Wattson shouts, blowing another Sableye back. "Damnit, if only we didn't have our hands full.."

"Ashe! Me and Wattson can handle this on our own! Go and help Kami, quick!" Flarea shouts, before out of nowhere, a Tyranitar lands right behind the trio, the force **alone **blowing them away and seperating them, while taking out the remaining Sableye.

"Hmph. You Sableye are pathetic, you know that?" He grunts before looking up at Branwen. "M'lady. You're looking a little burnt."

The Honchkrow lands on a branch and lets out an indignant huff. "Well you're not so perfect yourself! You're late. Hayabusa and Tetsu are already down, and I have no idea where that Cacturne got to. Not that it matters, since we've just about finished these blasphemous intruder-"

"Not yet! **Bubblebeam!**" All of a sudden, Ashe strikes back with a barrage of bubbles, which strikes Terra with a super effective hit. It elicits a groan from him, but the damage isn't significant.

Utilising her species' famous speed, she zips forward, right into Terra's line of sight. In fact, she heads right for him.

"You little insect, that hit before must have fried any sense you had. **Stone Edge.**" Sharp, pointy stones materialise around him, before he thrusts his hand forward, sending them flying at Ashe, but she swiftly dodges them.

"**Ice Beam!**" The little antenna on her head points forward, and out of it comes a freezing, glowing beam, which she aims at Terra's feet, freezing them to the ground.

"What?!"

The Surskit just glides gracefully around him, then comes to a halt, cackling. "What hit? All you did was knock us back by landing! Only shook us up a tiny bit. No damage here, bucko!" The big Rock type turns to her, and growls.

"Like this can hold me!" He grunts, and yanks his feet up, smashing the ice like glass, sending shards flying upwards.

Ashe grins inwardly. "Big mistake." Terra raises an eyebrow in confusion, then looks right forward to see a stream of fire heading towards him.

"Fire? Are you kidding me?" The fire hits him, and doesn't even leave a mark. "You weak warriors of light."

Flarea, who was responsible for the fire, stands there, and looks smug. "Any second..."

On cue, Terra starts to feel a harsh sting, and he grits his teeth. "W-what?!"

"You had ice surrounding you when my fire struck. What does ice turn to when it melts?" Flarea reminds the now wet Tyranitar, who's reeling from the stinging. "Oh yeah. **Water**. Now, Wattson!"

"**Thunderbolt!**" Wattson's attack zips past Flarea, and strikes Terra, making him yell out in pain.

The offending Heliolisk leaps in, laughing. "Water and electricity never mix! And I can say that from experience!"

"Alrighty! Time to go help out my friend!" Ashe tells the fire and electric duo before gliding past them. "You gonna be fine with this big lug?"

"We've dealt with a lot worse, kid. Besides, he doesn't look too smart right now." Flarea tells her with a smirk and a wink.

"Oki doki!" She continues on her way to the thunder mouse. "I'm coming, Kami!"

"Honestly, brought down by these little upstarts..." Branwen laments Terra's situation, before turning her attention to Kami. "As for you, you should know better than to face someone way out of your league alone, and think you can get away with your life. Hmm...looking at you like this reminds me of something..." She pauses for a moment, before a grin decorates her beak. "Oh yes, that Pikachu clan we came across that one time."

Kami looks up at the rambling Honchkrow, staggering upright. "C-clan..?"

Branwen sits down and starts talking with a sickly sweet story telling voice."Funny story, me and Terra were out in the forests near the Tiny Woods, having a stroll...actually...I think we could call it...less a stroll, more a rampage. Terra got awfully peeved with an annoying little Patrat, and it eventually escaped. Terra, now he was even more so angry that he'd escaped with his life, and needed something to vent his anger on. So he started levelling parts of the forest, and in the midst of it was a nice little clan of Pichu, Pikachu and a Raichu, who seemed like he was the strength, the rock, the alpha if you will, of the pack. The family seemed to be going out on their daily basis, and Terra ended up injuring one of their kids. The orange rat was less than pleased with Terra to say the least.."

"_W-wait...Pikachu clan near Tiny Woods..? Don't tell me she's talking about...no.." _

"He attacked Terra in revenge, and would have probably won...had Terra not been so much stronger than him. Unfortunately, the damage to the Raichu was so severe...that he died."

"_W-what?! P-papa Rai..was murdered?!"_

"It seemed after that, that the clan was looking for more punishment, and they attacked Terra all at once, but he was just too much for them, and they ended up biting the dust as well. Aside from one little one, who the mother had told to run." She notices a few tears streaming down Kami's face, but she dismisses it. "I think I caught her name...Rain, no...Reyn, no...Ravio...Ah!"

"_P-please no...don't let it be.."_

"Raiya. Smaller than the rest, seemingly."

"_A-anyone...but her...she was only a baby..." _Sickness. That's all Kami can feel right now. Nothing but sickness, at not only how those two were responsible for her adopted clan's demise, but how purely despicably casual she seems about the matter.

"The poor thing...she would have been alone anyway. Nobody would have remembered her if she lived or died...so I watched her run a while...before I delivered a mercy kill."

Wattson and Flarea have heard every single word spoken, and are absolutely disgusted. Flarea in particular, is feeling just as sick as Kami is, as she's trying really, really, _really _hard not to imagine little Blaze in that situation, but she's failing miserably. She's so caught up in her thoughts, that unfortunately, she doesn't see Terra recovering, and firing a Hyper Beam.

Which scores a direct hit right into her back.

"Flarea!" Wattson watches in horror, as the fire type goes flying into-no-through a tree, and hitting another one. As she blacks out instantly, Wattson growls, and turns around, firing a Thunderbolt at Terra while he's recovering from using Hyper Beam. Wattson doesn't let up, and puts on the pressure, which manages to push Terra back. "Coward!"

Now torn in who to help now, Kami or Wattson, Ashe looks back and forth between them, panicking.

Branwen takes notice of this, and laughs. "Having trouble, are we, bug?"

"You..."

"Hm?" She turns her attention back to Kami, who's back upright, and glaring at her, furiously, while tears stream down her cheeks.

"W-where do you get off?!"

"You still torn about that smaller rat? Was she significant to you in any way?" Branwen asks her, seemingly bored at the mouth on Kami.

"SHE WAS MY LITTLE SISTER, YOU FEATHERED **BITCH**!"

Now this makes everything go silent in the area. Wattson stops his Thunderbolt assault on Terra and looks over, eyes bugged out. "Whoa.."

Flarea opens one eye, groaning, and tries to get up.

Even Branwen is taken aback by this outburst. "Ex...excuse me?"

"You heard me!" Kami shouts, cheeks sparking furiously. "That clan adopted me, made me one of their own! Me and Raiya were best sisters! She looked up to me, and I promised I'd protect her...I swore I would...I thought they'd forgotten me when I woke up to find out they weren't there anymore. But to be honest...I'd have preferred that to what actually happened!"

"So...you're saying I missed a rat?" Her question is answered, not by Kami, or an electric attack, but by an Ice Beam, which misses by inches, from Ashe, who's glaring daggers at the dark bird.

"She isn't a rat! She's my best friend! Now leave her alone!" She shouts in defence of Kami.

"A-ashe.."

Branwen sighs, and facewings. "It's always the loud ones..." She takes off, and flies at Ashe, hitting her with a Wing Attack, making her yell in pain, the grabs her antenna with her beak, and drags her into a tree, hurting her even more. She then steps on the Pond Skater Pokemon, pinning her down.

"Ashe!" Kami yells at her. "Let her go!"

"If what?"

"..Please.."

"Not good enough!" She digs her talon into Ashe, making her whimper. "Say you'll surrender, or I'll end her life right now."

"W-what?!"

"Your choice. That goes for all of you!"

"Don't do it, guys.." Ashe whines from underneath Branwen. "You've still got to find Bolt, remember...?"

"Bolt?" Branwen scoffs. "You really believe that happened 10 years ago? Nothing more than a myth to make weak Pokemon feel better about themselves."

"Y-you're wrong! I've met him!"

"Oh really? Where is he now? Can you answer that?"

Kami goes silent. No, she can't. She can't say where he is. But she daren't admit that. She clutches on to a TM, that she picked up off the ground before she got up.

"Well? Can you?" She digs in harder, making Ashe scream.

"Ashe...!" _"She's going to die...she's going to die if we don't do something...but she said if we did do something, she'd kill her anyway...I can't let that happen...I still owe her after..."_

* * *

**Flashback**

The little Pichu has tears streaming down her face, scared out of her mind, in a yellow cell, watching Combee and Beedrill fly around the humongous hive.

"Let me out! Please...pretty pleeaaase..!" Kami pleads, sniffling quietly.

The guard Combee looks into the cell, all three faces putting on a creepy smile...at least according to Kami. "Sunrise, little girl!" They tell her. "Sunrise, if your friends pay the damage fees for the other hive!"

"But I'm hungryyyy..."

"Not our problem, mousey!"

"It is, now I'm here.." She pouts, putting on puppy dog eyes.

"W-well you're just going to have to go without!" Combee turns around, huffing.

"You're mean."

"You know it."

"I hate mean people."

"Cool story."

"Really?"

"No, I don't really care."

"I'll shock you!"

"Just try it, the hive doesn't like hostages who act up."

Without another word, Kami sighs, and sits down, wiping her eyes.

"_Just calm down...Bolt wouldn't leave you behind..right? He promised you'd be one of them...he said you're a comrade, a teammate.."_

A minute passes by, before Kami sighs, lying back.

"_Or maybe I'm just too hopeful.."_

Interrupting her thoughts is the yell of "Intruder!", which makes her head shoot up, and what she sees makes her glued to the bars of the cell.

Yells of the Combee and Beedrill echo on the walls, as Ice Beams freeze them to the walls in no time at all. The one responsible can't even be tracked as the beams seem to be coming from different places in seconds. Just how fast is this intruder?!

"Wooow...cool.." Kami comments quietly, blissfully unaware of the pun she just made.

What she doesn't expect, however, is the species of the one who's doing this. Which gets revealed to her once the place has ice pillars scattered, and it's difficult for the Combee and Beedrill to move around.

"Hey! Kami, right?" The Surskit chimes, causing the Pichu to slowly nod. "Hold on, I'll get ya out." She slips through the cell bars, only just, then lets loose a Signal Beam, which blows a hole to the outside. "And done!"

"Wait...why are you helping me?" Kami asks her quietly.

"The scary Mawile...she told me to." She shudders. "She looked deadly serious.."

"Titania sent you?!"

"Yeeup. C'mon, let's getcha outta here. Wait, you know how to fight?"

"I'm..not very strong..." Kami admits, ears drooped. "I feel useless not being able to defend myself.."

"Soo...whaddaya do when you're feeling a little weak? You get strong of course? Train!"

Kami looks at her confused. "Wha...?"

"Look, I can help you get strong alright? I'll help you get strong! Also...I kinda wanna check out this green...glowy thing I saw in a cave...wanna team up and look at it?" She asks hopefully, and Kami is only too happy to oblige with a bright smile.

"Sure!"

* * *

"_She helped me increase my power, but only a bit..I'm still physically weak...freaking small..I don't just want to protect my friends...I **need** to...but.." _Flashbacks of Bolt once more flood her vision, and she clenches her paws. Something awakens inside her. Yes. She can do this. But she needs something more.

Laughter rings out, making Branwen pause. "Hm?" She looks down at Kami, who seems to be shaking. Not with pain though. No. As soon as the mouse looks up again, she's revealed to be laughing, which alarms Branwen. "What are you laughing at?!"

"Oh, it's nothing.." Kami answers, cheeks crackling. "I'm just wondering if you're still raring to go?"

Now this takes Branwen by surprise. "Since when did you get so brave?!"

Her eyes narrow, her grin not leaving her face. "Since I realised I still owe Ashe."

Her face calming down a little, Branwen scoffs, and raises her head to laugh. "**That's **your movivation? You do realise you can't shock me without hurting yourself right? I don't even have to try to be able to knock you over. Not while you're in a pitiful state like that."

Kami's grin however, doesn't budge. "Y'know? You're right." Thunder cloaks her body, which starts to glow a bright white. "Lemme slip into something more comfortable." 

* * *

**Deja vu.**

**Also, sorry this took so long again :p**


End file.
